Mass effect fanfiction: An empires secret
by MisterDarkness
Summary: Just after the apocalyptic reaper war ended, shepard and his crew embark on one last quest in order to uncover the prothean empire's best kept secret (just so everybody knows yes the prologue is copied from the game, i felt it was better for the story to include it)
1. Prologue

'I'll have to do it' Shepard said, and he touched one of the keys on the board.

It lit up and bright green light took control of him.

It took him back fifty-thousand years, to the last moments in the reaper-prothean war.

Shepard could see ancient prothean cities under reaper attack, their defenders hopeless in their defence.

The image changed.

An alien, simliar to humans, but hairless and four eyes and a body built wider than those of humans.

It fired against enemies in front of him, enemies Shepard couldn't see.

He was sporting a rifle he couldn't recognize, everytime it was fired, it shot forward a stream of what seemed like a green liquid.

'That alien has to be prothean' shepard thought to himself.

After a few seconds of him looking at the prothean firing, the image changed once again, now he could see multiple protheans making a stand against enemies who looked exactly like…

'Fuck those are collecters!' Shepard said to himself.

'They must have been around since the time of the protheans'

The prothean al fought with a fury shepard had never saw before, except with himself and the likes of wrex and grunt.

In front of the protheans, six of them in total, the collector bodies started to pile up.

Suddenly one prothean, probably their leader, gathered a dark green energy in his right hand, and he smacked all the remaining collecters against the wall to his right.

Just at this moment, one of his soldiers was hit by one of the collecters, and fell to the ground.

The leader went down to his knee to check on the soldier, only to find him already dead.

'Victory seal the bulkheads!' The prothean leader said.

A VI projection appeared right beside the prothean, resembling another one of his race.

'Acknowledged' Victory said.

Two seconds later, two doors from either side of the hallway appeared from the walls and started to close.

The remaining protheans fired into the ever smaller hole of the door, until it was closed all the way.

The collectors slammed themselves against the door, to no avail.

The prothean leader looked around him.

Of the six soldiers just mere moments ago, just four had made it inside the bulkhead.

As he looked around him, he could see dozens of lifepots lying around on the floor, all severely damaged, the people inside them dead.

'Victory how many have we lost?' The prothean asked.

'Reaper forces have destroyed approximately three hundred thousand lifepods' Victory answered.

The prothean opened one of the damaged lifepots, only to find a dead prothean inside.

'A third of our people' He said.

He bowed his head and swiped his hand across the dead protheans face in what seemed like some sort of ritual.

'ALERT north-side bulkhead cannot be sealed, hostiles detected!' Victory declared.

'Direct all remaining soldiers to the north' The prothean said.

As they ran for their lives to the north-side bulkhead, they left behind their dead.

The vision went back to the prothean city under reaper attack.

Only to be back with the prothean leader a few seconds later.

It seemed like they had reached the north-side bulkhead.

'I'd never thought our empire would fall' A prothean said to the leader.

'It won't, we will sleep here until the reapers return to darkspace, then we will rize, a million strong.' The leading prothean said.

'For the empire' they both said in union.

'Get to your stasis pod' The leader said.

The other prothean bowed his head slightly, and walked to one of the still open stasis pods.

'Victory, signal the readiness signal to all lifepods' The leader said.

'What about the refugees who are still to reach the bunker?' Victory asked.

'Their sacrifice will be honored in the coming empire' The prothean said.

To their right, a massive explosion got their attention.

A stream of collector appeared and charged towards the still remaining protheans.

The leader grabbed his rifle and prepared himself for a final stand.

Present day.

'Hold on, I'm opening the pod' Shepard said, and he pushed a few buttons.

'Shepard!' Tali said, and she rushed to his side.

'What if it's hostile?' Tali asked.

'Don't worry, i've got two of the best soldiers at my side' Shepard said.

Even with Tali's face covered by a mask, he could still see her smile.

'Opening the pod now' Shepard said, and he pressed a final button.

A loud hissing sound from either side of the pod suprised them a bit.

The pod opened, a cloud of a white, odorless gas escaped from the pod, revealing it's contents.

It was the prothean leader shepard saw in his vision.

He was perfectly preserved, it looked like he was just asleep, like he had just gone to sleep, even though fifty-thousand years had passed.

After a few seconds he started to move.

'Carefull carefull, it will take him some time' Liara said, urging shepard and Tali to distance themselves from the pod.

A few moments later the prothean stumbled from his pod and fell to the ground.

The prothean hit them with the same attack he used on the collector, trying to get away.

He got to his feet and stared around.

Liara looked at hi mand said:

'Remember it's been fifty-thousand years for us, but for him it's only been..

Shepard got another vision.

'A few minutes!' the prothean screamed.

'No, the bunker is falling, there is no other option!' The victoy VI declared.

'There are pods online, those soldiers are still alive!' The prothean leader begged victory.

'Their sacrifice will be honored in the coming empire' Victory said.

Victory stared for a few seconds at the prothean.

'Preparing neutron bombardment, get to your lifepod now!' Victory demanded.

With no other option, the prothean obeyed the VI's orders and got to his lifepod.

He opened his pod and got inside.

The pod closed over his head.

'Neutron bombardment underway' Victory said.

Loud noices that where still audible inside the pod indicated that victory unleashed the full power of the stations safety mechanisms.

'Station is secured commander Javik' Victory said.

'What is left of it, a few hundred people, how am I supposed to rebuilt and empire from that?' Javik said.

'Further adjustments may be necessary, the neutron purge compromised the facility' Victory said.

'Clarify' Javik said.

'Sensors are damaged, automated reactivation is not an option' victory said.

'You will remain in stasis until a new culture discovers this bunker, it may lead to a power shortage' Victory said.

'DO NOT shut of more pods, I need the few that are left!' Javik demanded to victory.

'Power needs will be triaged appriately' victory said.

'You will be the voice of our people' Victory said to Javik.

'I will be more than that' Javik said, a millisecond before the pod activated the stasis mode.


	2. Mass effect An empires secret Chapter 1

'Shepard I need to speak to you' Javik said as he pressed the doorbell.

The door opened, and Javik stared directly into the eyes of Tali.

Or as he should say it, Ms. Shepard.

A year after the war ended, they married.

Javik had just made it in time at Rannoch to witness the final parts of the wedding, before he once again departed to continue his quest.

'Javik, it's good to see you again' Tali said from behind her mask.

'You still haven't managed to lose the masks?' Javik asked.

'We're working on it, but it's going to take a long time, after allmost all the geth where killed when shepard fired the crucible…' Tali said.

'Don't feel said, they where just machines, programmes' Javik said.

'Some of us may think different about it' Tali said.

'Anyway i'll get you shepard' Tali said, and she beckoned Javik to follow her.

'What brings you here?' Tali asked him.

'I've been searching for any artifacts of my people, but I was unable to find any untill I visited our home planet Kalinea' Javik said.

'Shepard, come' Tali yelled loud to let John hear her.

Within ten seconds, John was inside.

'Its great seeing you again, what brings you here?' John said.

'It's complicated' Javik said and he turned around.

'What is it?' John asked.

'One of the stories we where told of a time just after the reapers came, I remember one' Javik said and he turned around to face John and Tali.

'It was always told that the first indoctinatred prothean detonated a thermonuclear warhead in our capital outside of the citadel on Kalinea' Javik said.

John looked at Javik with a very serious expression

'What did you find?' He asked.

'I have reason to believe that the nuclear weapon wasn't detonated in order to destroy our remaining government' Javik said.

'What could your ancestors use it for?' John asked.

'There is only one other option' Javik said as he stared directly into the eyes of John.

'They needed to hide something' Javik said.

'Fuck Javik thats ridiculous, why would they detonate a nuclear warhead in the middle of the city just to hide something?' John said.

'I know it sounds crazy, but I checked the dates of the supposed terrorist attack, and it's just a week after the imperial navy was slaughtered by the reapers, including the penumbra apex, our flagship' Javik said.

'So what?, it could be just a coinsidence?' John said.

'Perhaps but what if I'm right and my ancestors tried to hide something extremely important?' Javik said, and his face turned dark.

'Something worth killing hundreths of thousands of lives for' Tali said.

'But why did you come to me with this information?' John asked.

'When I was searching the site of the city where the bomb exploded, I was almost caught by a band of thieves' Javik said.

'And now you come to me for help?' John asked.

'Think about it shepard, it could be my people's most important artifact, our most valuable information, think about it' Javik said.

John thought about it for a minute.

'I'll contact Hackett and the alliance high command' John said.

'You don't have the normandy anymore, primitive' Javik said, and he smirked.

'I'm sure Hackett will give us the normandy' Tali said.

'I'll get my stuff' Tali said, and she left the room.

Both Javik and John stood still for a few moments and stared in front of them, thinking about days now gone by.

'You honestly don't have any idea about what your people could be hiding?' John asked.

'No, but it surely was a matter of upmost importance' Javik said.

'I'm happy for the three of you' Javik said.

'What?' John asked.

'I said I was happy for the three of you, the avatar of victory finally at peace' Javik said.

'Did you say three?' John looked at Javik very suprised.

'Oh you don't now yet?' Javik asked.

'You primitive, it's extremely obvious' Javik smirked.

Just at that exact moment, Tali entered the room.

John looked at her for a second, but choosed not to say anything.

'John Shepard counsil spectre, requesting a conversation with supreme admiral Steven Hackett' John said, and he swiped his ID cart over the sensor.

'Identity confirmed, welcome John Shepard' The communicator said.

'Hello shepard, it's good to see you again' Hackett said.

'Feelings mutual' John said.

'What was the thing you wanted to talk to me about?' Hackett asked.

'I'm requesting that the normandy will be relocated to serve under my command for one final mission' John said.

'I'll do anything I can, do you want me to notify the counsil?' Hackett asked.

'I would be glad' John said.

'Be at the citadel in two days, and the normandy will be yours' Hackett said.

'Thank you sir' John said.

'Just know that you will have to provide the reason for the returning of the normandy to your command' Hackett said.

'I assure you it's of galactic importance' John said.

'I trust you shepard, Hackett out' Hackett said, and he ended the conversation.

Five minutes later at Shepard's and Tali's house.

'Tali, we have to go, grab all you can in five minutes and meet me outside?' John said.

'You trust Javik without any proof?' Tali asked.

'Think about it, if Javik is right, there is a possibility the information we find can help us rebuilt Rannoch' John said.

'I will only go because you are going aswell' Tali said.

John and Tali hugged.

Twenty minutes later.

John, shepard and Tali where sitting in a cab which was travelling to space.

From space they would hop in one of the larger vessels, which would bring them through the mass relay, and to the citadel.

'How did you discover it?' John asked Javik.

'I'm sorry but the risk for any listening devices is to great' Javik said.

'Don't be ridiculous' Tali said.

As the journey to the mass relay went on, Javik didn't say a word.

He was staring outside, like he was searching for something.

The cab connected to a larger vessel, and went back to Rannoch

After a ten minute journey, they reached the mass relay.

The ship shook very slightly right before the jump.

One giant flash of white light, and they had travelled to the citadel.

Thousands of lightyears travelled in an instant.

'Lets make this quick' Javik said, as the ship prepared to dock.

'Yeez Javik, what is wrong with you, calm down' Tali said annoyed.

'You don't understand' Javik said as he looked straight at Tali's face.

'Then explain it, what could possibly be so important?' Tali asked.

'I will explain as soon as we are on the normandy' Javik said.

Even though Tali tried to start a conversation multiple times, Javik refused to talk anymore.

The ship finished docking, and the cargo door opened.

As was usual, multiple people where watching shepard, Tali and Javik.

Javik looked around once before he said:

'Let's go get the Normandy'

The three walked straight tot he counsilors chambers, ignoring everyone on their way there.

When they where halfway there, Shepard spotted a krogan in the distance.

'No way' He said, laughed, and walked to the krogan who was standing hunched over on a bench.

'Wrex, what are you doing here?' Shepard asked.

'Just headbutting with the counsil, as usual now' Wrex said in his familiar heavy krogan voice.

'Is everything going okay on Tuchanka?' Shepard asked.

'To be honest, better than expected, the reapers bled us almost dry, but we will survive, in large part thanks to you' Wrex said, and he gave Shepard the Krogan equivalent of a smile.

'Anyway, what are you doing here?' Wrex asked as he looked at Shepard.

'Honestly, I dont have a fucking clue, two days ago Javik came to us on Rannock, demanding that we get the Normandy, and take him with us on a journey, he didn't say where to' Shepard said.

'Strange indeed, how long are you expecting to be away for?' Wrex asked.

'Let's hope that its going to be a few days to a week at most' Shepard.

'Consider me in' Wrex said, smiling.

'But, dont you have other things to do, like talk to the counsil, or business on Tuchanka?' Shepard.

'They can all wait, and they are useless activities that noone would bet an eye for if they happened later' Wrex said.

'Welcome to the crew then' Shepard said and he grinned

Shepard opened the counsil door and stepped inside, where he was immediately greeted by admiral Steven Hackett.

'Hello shepard, just in time'

'So, what about the Normandy?' Shepard asked.

'Ready to return under your command, but there is one catch' Counsilor Augustus said.

Shepard looked at the newly elected counsiler with a slight annoyance on his face before he said:

'Well, I didn't expect you to give me the normandy without a hassle'

'As you probably know, our losses in the reaper war have been extremely devastating, we've lost over ninety procent of our material, and soldiers' Augustus said to Shepard.

'I know' Shepard said, his mind flashed back to the final battle on earth.

The landing was tough, almost fifty percent of hammer was destroyed before they even had a foothold.

Another ten percent was lost advancing to the resistance headquarters, never in his whole life had Shepard seen such brutal fighting.

He saw the bodies of his men piling up on the streets, with hundreths of thousands of Reaper creatures between them.

It took the sacrifice of dozens of men and women to grant him the ability to destroy a Reaper destroyer with Thanix missiles.

Just before they launched the final assault on the beam itself, they got word of a giant reaper force advancing from their left, killing everything in their path.

He remembered the pure exhaustion and desperation in his soldiers eyes.

There wouldn't have been a way for us to stop them

But luckily for us, there was Urdnot Wrex.

Not playing deceivingly, he had taken his entire force on earth, and attacked the reaper ground forces head on.

Even though shepard only caught small fragments of the actual fighting, it was unlike anything he ever saw, brutal was a sensere understatement.

The fighting he had just experienced with his men and women was childsplay in comparison what happened between wrex and his krogan against the reaper forces.

After Tali had rescued him, Shepard discovered that wrex had survived, but he had lost almost every krogan he had.

But without their sacrifice, the run to the beam would never have been possible.

'Without the krogan, we never would've made it' Shepard said to himself

The next moment Shepard snapped back into reality.

'And thats why luitenant Williams has to go with you to make sure you don't accidentely crash the normandy' Augustus said, completely unaware of what had just played out in Shepards mind.

'I guess so, when do I get permission to leave the citadel?' Shepard asked.

'You'll get to use the normandy for three months, starting tomorrow, we still have some technicalities to solve' Augustus said.

'And we want a report as soon as you finish your mission' Augustus added.

'Thats a fair trade' Shepard said.

'The normandy will be ready tomorrow eight o'clock be ready to make most of your time, if what you're doing is important' Hackett said.

Shepard nodded, and offered both Augustus and Hackett his right hand.

'This better be worth the hassle' He said to himself.

Immediately when Shepard got outside the counsilor chamber, he was halted by Javik.

'And what is the news, did your superior officer place the normandy back into your command' Javik said demandingly.

'We have two months tops, but this better be worth it' Shepard said.

'Let's hope it is, when do we leave?' Javik asked.

'Tomorrow morning at eight o'clock, docking bay Z25' Shepard said.

'Well I guess I can go visit some shops, see how the citadel is doing' Javik said, and he walked away.

'Wait Javik' Shepard stopped him.

'What is it' Javik said, slightly annoyed.

'Don't you need a place to sleep, you can always come to my appartment, you know, where we had the party just before the battle for earth' Shepard said.

'Appreciated, but I'll need some hours in meditation to clear my mind for the coming months' Javik said, as he once again walked away.

'What a journey we had' Tali said as she closed the door of shepards appartment.

'It was the best' Shepard said, hugging Tali.

'Do you love me?' Tali asked.

Shepard chuckled once.

'You are the only woman in my life, and will be for the rest of my life' He said.

Tali pushed him away to one arms length.

She pushed a few buttons on the side of her head.

Shepard could hear a hissing sound as she pressurized her mask.

A few seconds later she pushed another button on her mask, and it came of.

He looked at her beautifull face, like always, she had tucked her coal-black hair behind her head.

'I love you John' Tali said, and she kissed him.

One kiss turned into another one, and Shepard lifted her up, and carried her to the bedroom.

Both of them lost all of their clothes before they reached the bed.

Shepard woke up.

It had been a wild night, and he yawned.

He stretched himself, and found that Tali was still laying beside him.

She was already awake.

'You're awake, finally' Tali said, and she pushed herself even closer to him.

'Lets go, we have long day in front of us' Shepard said.

He kissed Tali once, and helped her putting on her suit.

'No longer scared to get sick?' Shepard chuckled.

'Our immune system gets better every day, but even though if that wasn't the case, I wouldnt give a damn, I need your skin against mine' Tali said to him.

She winked once before she closed her mask.

A few minutes before eight, shepard and Tali reached docking bay z25.

Just as Shepard was expecting, Javik was waiting for them.

'Commander' He said as he noticed them approaching.

'You took your time' Javik said.

'We still have some minutes left' Shepard said as he looked at his watch.

'How long have you been here waiting?' Shepard asked.

'He's been waiting her almost all night' A guardsman said.

'Better safe than sorry' Javik said as he laughed once.

Shepard yawned once more.

He had a feeling that he wouldn't be able to sleep normally for days to come.

'Skipper!' He heard Ashley yell from behind him.

'Ash!' Shepard exclaimed.

He hugged her.

'It's great to see you again' Ashley said.

'You to captain Ashley' Shepard said, causing Ashley to laugh.

'Why don't we get started' Ashley said, beckoning tali, shepard and Javik to follow them.

It was at that moment when they heard another loud voice, and shepard turned around to find Wrex 'gently' pushing himself through:

'Make way! Make way!'

'I never thought you where serious' Shepard said and he offered the krogan his right hand.

'Wouldn't want to mis out on all the fun' Wrex said, and he followed them to the normandy.

There was someone waiting for Shepard in the pilot's compartment of the normandy.

Shepard knocked once on the door and waited.

'Come on in commander' A familair voice said.

Shepard opened the door and stared at the people inside.

'Commander, I'll tell you, I'm very glad you're back' Joker said as he looked shepard in the eyes.

With some difficulty, Joker got up from his chair, walked to shepard, and hugged him.

After a few seconds, he went back to his chair.

'What is this mission we're doing shepard?' Edi ásked from the co-pilots seat.

Even though she had some visible scars, she was still alive.

'I don't know yet, tell Ashley, wrex, tali and Javik to gather in the war room' Shepard said.

'Sure thing, what time do you have in mind?' Edi asked.

'15 minutes, that would give anyone time to settle in for a bit' Shepard said.

Edi nodded and returned to her seat.

'Commander, where do you want us to fly the ship?' Joker asked.

'I really don't know yet, we'll have to wait till after the meeting' Shepard asked.

'Will do' Joker asked.

'Before you walk away Shepard' Edi said.

'Yes Edi?' Shepard asked.

'Its good to have you back' She said.

'You to edi' Shepard smiled as he left the pilot's compartment.

Fifteen minutes later, shepard walked to war room.

As he entered it, he could see that all others where already present.

Javik, unlike his usual calm self was walking around the war room with his hands behind his back in a very nervous state.

'Commander, you have arrived' He said.

'Ready to tell us where to go Javik?' Shepard asked.

'Edi, seal the doors and make the room soundproof' Javik said loudly.

It took a few moments before Edi eboyed.

'Whats with all this secrecy?' Wrex asked.

Javik swallowed once before he began to talk.

'I think I might know the location of one of my people's greatest secret' Javik said.

'So wait, you needed us to come with you, because you MIGHT, know the location of someone' Wrex said loudly.

'Wrex is right, what could possible be so important for the normandy to be involved?' Shepard asked.

Shepard thought for a moment before he spoke.

'Since we're doing this anyway, tell us where to go and what we can expect when we arrive there'

'Get to our homeworld Kalinea, and you'll see for yourself' Javik said.

'Where is it located?' Shepard asked.

'Your people call it TKS-28-1, located in the Calestone rift, the system your people use for the system is TKS-28' Javik said.

'What, that cant be right, thats a waste land, nothing prothean has ever been found there, it's impossible to be your species's homeplanet' Tali said in surprise.

'Well quarian, why do you think there have been no prothean artifacts findings on TKS-28-1?' Javik asked.

'Edi, set a course for the TKS-28 system in the Calestone rift' Shepard said.

'The TKS-28 system, but commander, there's nothing there' Edi said.

'Just do it' Shepard said.

'Javik if you lied to me, or this is some kind of sick joke, I will throw you out the airlock' Shepard said to Javik.

'Do you really think I have time for stupid jokes, you primitives think I'm joking?' Javik said angrily.

'We'll find out soon enough' Shepard said.

Shepard sighed as he left the war room for the captains chambers.

Tali was waiting for him.

'I hate not knowing where I'm at' Shepard said.

'Its never that easy' Tali said.

She got up from his bed and walked towards him.

'Come spend the night with me, it will take hours for the normandy to reach the system' Tali said.

'Enticing' Shepard said.

Eight hours later.

'Commander, we'll reach TKS-28 in two minutes' Joker said over their two-way com.

'Ashley, Wrex and Javik, gather in the armory' Shepard said over the general com.

Two minutes later, he met them in the armory.

As shepard had expected, Javik already wore his battle armor.

'Everyone grab what you need, expect a large force or raiders' He said.

'This going to be awesome!' Wrex said as he grabbed his shotgun.

After a few minutes, everyone was ready, and they headed for the shuttle.

'Joker wait for us above the planet and come pick us up again when we finished our business' Shepard said over his com with Joker.

The team reached the shuttle, and got inside.

'Set us down on the planet pilot' Shepard said after they all got inside.

'Yes commander where do you want to land us?' The woman asked, looking at a scan of the planet.

'See that big brown blocky thing on the surface? Land closely to it' Javik said.

'You agree with this commander?' The pilot asked.

'Yes, do as he says' Shepard said.

The shuttle took off, and departed the normandy.

'I hope what youre saying about the raiders is true, I cant fucking wait' Wrex said, .

'Youre still looking for the perfect fight Wrex?' Tali asked.

'No' Wrex Lowered his voice.

'I already had it' He said, laughing.

'Good to know' Tali said.

They where silent for the remaining journey to the surface of the planet, until the shuttle was only a meter or twenty above the ground.

'Is this the place you want me to land the shuttle?' The pilot asked.

Shepard looked at Javik.

Javik nodded.

'Yes, set us down here' Shepard said.

In a few seconds, the shuttle decended from the sky and touched down.


	3. Mass effect An empires secret Chapter 2

**Hi there, If you're reading this, you probably read the prologue and chapter 1 I thank you very much.**

 **I know my english isn't the best, but ill do my best.**

 **Comments and suggestions are highly appreciated.**

 **And I also truly hope you guys and girls enjoy your read!**

 **In chapter 2 Shepard does a major discovery**

'Lets get this party started' Shepard said, he placed his resperator mouthpiece on his helmet, and waited for the others to do so as well.

'Everyone ready?' Shepard asked.

'Ready' Ashley said.

'Almost there' Tali said, as she ran a last minute weapons check.

'HA! see you're still with the shotgun I gave you' Wrex said as he laughed.

'I never thought I could like my favorite quarian even more' Wrex continued.

'You're ready Javik?' Shepard asked, looking at him.

'I'm back to the lands from my ancestors for the second time now, so yeah I'm ready' The prothean responded.

'Stay here with the shuttle, if anything happens, don't hesitate to contact me, and I'll be back as quickly as I can' Shepard said to the shuttle's pilot.

'Understood commander, Ill wait here' She said.

'Lets get this party started' Shepard said, and he pushed the button on the shuttles door to open it.

A wind blew them straight in the face.

'Sensors indicate toxic gasses present in admosphere, do not under any circumstances remove your masks' Edi declared a seconds later.

'Well, that's hopefull' Ashley said.

Shepard turned to face Javik.

'What where you doing here on this planet before you where attacked?' Shepard asked.

'Lets check our communications first' Javik said.

'What do you mean?' Shepard said.

'Nothing that's said today gets beyond you, and edi ofcourse' Javik said.

'Thank you for trusting me Javik' Edi responded.

'We'll do' Shepard said, and everyone checked their coms to see if their connections where secure.

Of course they where secure.

The communication system itself was protected by Edi herself.

And that meant that it was uncrackable.

The only hacker that ever managed to deceive Edi, where the reapers during the fight with the collecters.

'Come follow me' Javik said, and he walked straight ahead to the large rockformation right in front of them.

'I suppose I can be honest now' Javik said.

'You'd better be' Wrex said.

Javik nodded and he climbed over a rock.

'For weeks after the victory against the reapers, I roamed the milkyway in search of anything from my people, but I didn't find anything, everything was gone, nothing was left, every piece of evidence my people even existed was already discovered' Javik said, with a sadness in his voice.

The group now had walked halfway to the rockformation.

'But I don't now why I did, I suppose I was desperate, I touched the memory shard' Javik said.

'But I told you not to do that' Shepard said in protest.

'There was nothing left to do, after the victory, the memories of everyone I ever knew before I entered stasis mode faded away even more' Javik said.

'And what did you find?' Tali said.

'I saw everything I ever had experienced in my life, from the moment of my birth, till the moment I entered stasis mode, and much further back' Javik looked at the group.

'I saw the start of the invasion, how the reapers came from darkspace with the help of the citadel, how our fleet was destroyed, but most importantly, I learned the location our home planet, I took I long time to figure out, but in the end I managed to do it' Javik said.

'And so you came here' Shepard said.

They had reached the rockformation.

'Yes, and what I found shocked me, but I didn't understand it' Javik said.

'Explain away' Shepard said.

'When I was checking…' Javik said before tali urged them to get down.

'Someone's out there' She said.

'Let me handle it' Wrex said, and he stood right up, grabbed his famous shotgun, held it behind his back, and walked over the edge.

'What the hell are you doing here krogan?' An human voice said.

'I'm a delivery man' Wrex said.

Shepard peeked over the edge to look at who Wrex was talking to.

He saw that it was a group of four, two humans, one salarian and one turian.

'Get lost, you're in our territory' One of the humans said.

'Well, I really do have a package' Wrex said.

The man walked closer until his face almost touched Wrex's.

'I want you gone, now' The man said.

'To bad' Wrex said, and way quicker than the man, or any of his friends could respond, he revealed the shotgun from behind his back, and pulled the trigger.

The massive impact from the shotgun blew a hole right in the middle of the man, killing him instandly.

Before the weapon fully recoiled, wrex already grabbed the head of the salarian, and violently smashed it against his right knee, also killing him instantly.

The next other human did manage to fire at Wrex, but his bullets failed to even scratch the krogans thick armor.

And then the shotgun finished reloading itself.

Wrex blew the humans head clean of.

The turian dropped his weapon.

'I surrender!' The surviving Turian screamed.

'I don't think so' Wrex said, aiming his shotgun at the turians head.

'Wrex wait!' Shepard said, emerging from behind his cover.

'Don't kill him' Shepard said.

'Why not?' Wrex asked, clearly annoyed.

'He can tell us what they are doing here'

'Dammit youre right shepard' Wrex said, and he turned his large head to face the turian.

'Today is your lucky day turian, or not if you look at it in a different way'

'Everyone come on out' Shepard said to Ashley, tali and Javik, who where still hidden behind their cover.

One by one they emerged.

'Oh god' The surviving turian said.

'If you even think about moving, I'll make sure not even a single piece will be left of you' Shepard said.

The turian quickly nodded.

Wrex went down to his knees, so that his face was only a couple centimeters away, and said.

'Answer truthfully, or you'll beg me to kill you'

The absolutely terrified turian just nodded.

'What are you, and your 'friends doing' here?' Shepard asked as he started the interrogation.

'Protecting a base of our gang' The turian said.

'Why are you on this planet, you could've picked a much better planet than this god forsaken hellhole' Shepard said.

The turian shook his head.

'That's exactly why, its remote, no one will come looking for us, except for this freak over there who arrived her a few weeks ago, we caught him as he entered our base' The turian pointed at Javik, who returned his gaze with a look of anger.

'Good, now where is your base, we wanted to pay your friends a.. Visit' Shepard said.

The turian didn't respond.

Instead he just stared at them.

After at least another thirthy seconds wrex had, had enough.

He grabbed the turian by the throath with his right arm, effordlessly lifted him from the ground, and he put his shotgun in the turians neck.

'Still don't understand Turian' Wrex shook his head.

'Don't lie to shepard, or you will regret it' Wrex said, and he dropped the turian.

Before the turian could even recover, Shepard asked the next question.

'Second, and final chance, where is your base?' Shepard stared in the turians eyes, trying to look if he was speaking the truth.

A skill he had learned to develop while fighting the reapers.

But still the turian didn't say anything.

Wrex looked at him once more, and loaded a round into his shotgun.

That send the turian over the edge.

'Three kilometers from here, over the rock formation and into in a large cave on the other side, should be easy to spot'

Shepard nodded.

'You think he is telling the truth?' Shepard asked to Javik.

'Could be, or we could just kill him and be done with it, or even better, boil him alive, like they did with scum in my cycle' Javik said.

'I don't know shepard, I don't see any reason why he isn't telling the truth' Both Ashley and Tali said.

Suddenly, shepard got an idea.

If Edi could scan the rockformation, she could find the cave, if the turian was telling the truth.

'Ashley, Tali, hold the fucker, Wrex and Javik, shoot him if he even dares to move a single muscle' Shepard said.

'Normandy' He whispered to Tali.

She nodded, and forced the turian to sit on his knees.

Shepard walked away to a distance of forty meters, making it absolutely sure he was no longer within hearing distance, to make sure the turian didn't pick anything up.

'Edi, this is shepard, I need your assistance' Shepard said.

'Yes commander, what do you need?' Edi asked.

'We have encountered a group of four bandits, the surviving one says his base is across on the other side of a rock formation, which we are facing now' Shepard said.

'I want you to make sure he's telling the truth' Shepard said.

'Wait for a few moments until the Normandy is aligned…' Edi said.

Shepard waited patiently for a few seconds before Edi finished her scan.

'Yes the man is telling the truth, although I have to say, watch out, the base is guarded by seventeen soldiers on the outside alone' Edi said.

'Any krogan?' Shepard asked.

'Two that I can see, beside that four batarians, ten humans, and another turian' Edi said.

'Thank you Edi' Shepard said.

'Will be here when you need me' Edi said.

Shepard walked back to the group.

The turian was still on his knees.

'Did he tell the truth?' Ashley asked.

'He did' Shepard announced.

'Dammit' Wrex said as he strapped the shotgun back to its leg.

'Javik, do we really need to raid the bandits camp?' Shepard asked.

'We will have to, I'm feeling something, I felt it when I first landed on this planet, I traced it back to the cave, before I was caught' Javik said.

'What are you talking about you freak, you're talking about the weird stone tablets we found?' The turian said out of nowhere.

'What?' Javik turned around immediately, looking at the turian.

'We think they contain very valuable information that we will sell to the highest…' The turian didn't have the chance to finish his sentence, as Javik shot him in the head.

'Damn' Tali said shocked.

'Ha! You truly are a krogan in disguise!' Wrex said to Javik while laughing.


	4. Mass effect An empires secret Chapter 3

**In this chapter, shepards team infiltrate the cave, and find what they where looking for**

 **I really hope you enjoy reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it.**

 **I will try to post a new chapter everyday.**

Lets get going and surprise these bastards before they have any idea what happened with their friends' Ashley said.

Shepard nodded and they made their way across the rocky formation to the top, leaving behind the bodies of the four bandits they had just killed.

The encounter had only taken less then a minute, but you could never be to carefull.

'Javik, take the left flank with Ashley, wrex you take the middle, and I'll take the right flank with Tali' Shepard said as they reached the top.

He was panting.

It was over a year ago since he destroyed the reapers, and his physical condition had somewhat declined.

'What now?' Wrex asked.

'We approach them stealthily, make sure we don't get spotted, then we try to take as many out as we can before we go in' Shepard said.

'Why not doing it the other way around?' Wrex said.

'You'll have plenty to shoot Wrex, don't worry' Shepard said, smirking.

The group divided themselves like shepard had said.

After half a minute or so, everyone was in position, and awaited instructions.

Shepard moved his right hand up and down, urging them to hide behind the rocks.

He peeked over the edge, and looked at the camp below him.

It was over fifty meters away, ideal distance for sniper rifles.

Shepard switched to the group's com, declaring:

'I'll take the krogan with the shotgun, ash you take the one with the assault rifle, Tali and Javik, just shoot whatever you can get your sights on, mark your targets and try to kill everyone with a single shot.

'What about me?' Wrex asked.

'You'll have to wait before I give the signal' Shepard said.

'Why should all of you guys get all the fun?' Wrex said, slightly upset.

'Don't worry, I'll use my secret krogan card' Shepard said.

It took some moments before Wrex realized what he said, and he laughed.

'Alright everyone, wait for my signal' Shepard said and he once again peeked over the edge, holding his black widow sniper rifle in his left hand.

He was waiting for the majority of the guards to turn their backs to them.

It took some time, but shepard and his team waited patiently.

Eventually it happened.

'Now!' Shepard said over the com, immediately thereafter, four shots where fired.

To shepards surprise, the shot he fired at the krogan did not penetrate the very though headplate, but thanks to the widow's reload speed, the krogan was dead before he could even feel the pain of the first hit.

Ashleys shot did kill the krogan in a single hit, her shot penetrated a tiny weakhole in the krogans forehead, just above its eyes, turning his brains into mush.

Javik and Tali hid their mark, both clean headshots.

The bandits didn't know what was happening.

Pure panic took a hold of them.

They started to run wild like chickens in a coop.

But there was nowhere to hide for them.

The combined sniper rifle fire cut them down before they even located where the shots where coming from.

'Dammit leave some for me!' Wrex said.

Out of seventeen bandits that they could see, only four where still alive after only twenty seconds.

They finally managed to locate where the shots came from, and returned fire, but only hitting the rocks around shepard and his team, not even close to hitting them.

In a last desperate move, the remaining bandits went back inside the cave, losing another two of them on the way.

'Everyone get inside the cave and finish them of!' Shepard said.

Wrex was to first to rush over their cover, leaving shepard, tali, Ashley and Javik to follow him.

They made their way down the slope, and reached the front of the cave.

A few shots came from inside, only hitting the corpses of their friends outside.

'If anyone wants another kill, try to keep up with me' Wrex said, and he stormed into the cave.

'What the hell?' A few voices yelled from inside the cave.

'Dammit he's fast' Shepard said as he tried to keep up with Wrex.

Wrex was surprisingly fast for someone so large.

Everytime Shepard thought he was close, Wrex finished off the bandits with a shotgun shell.

Even though the bandits outnumbered them, it wasn't a fair fight.

Shepard and his team had already killed the majority of them outside the cave.

And on top of all of that, shepard had a krogan.

A very deadly krogan.

Everything the bandits did to stop him, was futile.

There wasn't really anything you could do to stop an eight hundred pound battering ram.

They got deeper inside the cave, discovering what the bandits had been up to.

The place was used to mainfacture drugs, loads of different kinds, all illegal under the counsil law.

'Perfect place to hide' Shepard said to himself.

As they chased Wrex, the only bandits they found where already dead, wrex's shotgun didn't settle for halfwork.

'Dammit, I think we got all of them' Wrex said suddenly.

The team reached up to Wrex, and found that he was right.

He had killed the final bandit with a shotgun shell to the face, and he was looking around to see if there was any other hallway the bandits could hide in.

'It doesn't seem like there are any left' Tali said.

'Next time, I'll leave some for you' Wrex said.

Before the assault on the bandits base had really begun, it was already over.

'What now shepard, we took down the bandits, so what next?' Ashley asked.

Shepard looked at Javik.

'Where are the stone tablets located?' He asked.

Javik nodded his head.

'They aren't stone tablets, but memory shards' Javik said.

Shepard looked at him in surprise.

'That shouldn't be possible, every memory shard I know of is the same, all of them are extremely high tech' Shepard said.

'That's because you're not a prothean' Javik said.

'You know where they are?' Shepard asked.

Javik shook his head.

'I feel they are inside the cave, but I don't know exactly where'

The team followed him as he strolled around inside the cave.

Javik turned everything upside down, trying to find the memory shards.

'Any idea what we're looking for' Tali asked.

'I don't know, they could be anything' Javik said.

The team tried to help Javik find the shards, but it didn't help.

As the minutes went by, and nothing was found, shepard sat down for a moment.

Tali joined him.

'I hope he finds them quickly, I don't like this place, it feels so weird' Tali said to him.

'Lets search through the trash' Ashley said.

'I give up' Wrex said after half an hour had passed.

'Dammit, don't you primitives have any patience?' Javik exclaimed.

'Be thankful we where willing to come with you' Ashley said.

'I am' Javik said.

'Then fucking act like it' Ashley said.

Five minutes later.

'You're really sure its in this cave?' Ashley asked Javik.

'I have never been so certain' Javik said.

'Well if you're so damn certain, why haven't we found it yet?' Wrex said, and he grabbed a random rock from the floor, and threw it against the left wall of the cave.

Immediately as he did that, Javik followed the stone.

'Really?' Wrex said in surprise.

'A random rock?' Ashley said.

Javik grabbed the rock from the floor, sat down on a stool and removed his handgloves.

'Watch out, the air is toxic' Shepard said.

'I don't really care' Javik said, and he touched the rock with his bare skin.

A few seconds went by, but nothing happened.

Then Javik closed his eyes, and started to mumble in a language no one had heard before.

'You ever seen him act like that?' Wrex asked.

'Never' Shepard said.

After two minutes Javik reopened his eyes, and looked at them.

'What did you see?' Shepard asked.

'The final moments of Kalinea before the bomb exploded, but I found out who did it, and they weren't indoctrinated' Javik said.

'You sure about that?' Tali asked.

'Yes, it was difficult to see, but possible' Javik said.

'Who detonated the bomb?' Ashley asked.

Javik was silent for a few moments as he thought about it.

'A group of people, they did it out of desperation, one single prothean had caught word of what they where trying to do, and had left them to alert other protheans' Javik said.

'So they killed hundredths of thousands to simply hide what they were doing?' Tali asked in surprise.

'I didn't find out exactly what they were doing, but I know where they went after the bomb exploded' Javik said.

'Tell me' Shepard said.

'The titan nebula, on a planet my people called: 'Pherth 185' Javik said.

'Never heard of that planet before' Shepard said, and he looked at the others in the group.

But everyone shook their heads.

Javik also shook his head.

No one had any idea where the planet was located.

It was a complete mistery.

'Are you completely sure you don't know where it is?' Shepard asked to Javik.

He once again shook his head.

'No, as I already said, the shard was very vague, the person who made it probably didn't have enough time' Javik said.

'It seems like we reached a dead end' Ashley said.

Shepard thought for a moment before he got an idea.

If the information of the planets whereabouts still exist, there was only one person who could come up with it.

The shadow broker.

'We have to get in touch with Liara, she is probably the only one who can find out the location of the planet' Shepard said.

Javik nodded in agreement.


	5. Mass effect An empires secret Chapter 4

**I managed to solve the problem.**

 **I hope everyone is having a great day, and I also hope that everyone who reads this enjoys it.**

 **Reviews are highly appreciated.**

After the group reached the Normandy, shepard immediately went to his quarters.

Just as he was about to open the door, he felt a familiair touch on his left shoulder.

'I was coming to see how you're doing' Tali said.

'This day, I really don't know what to say about it, I've gotton more questions than answers' Shepard said, and he walked inside his captains quarters.

'No one ever said it was going to be easy' Tali said.

The door closed behind them.

'I know, but it would be great if that was the case' Shepard said.

'Even if this turns out to be the hardest thing we ever did, I'll be at your side' Tali said.

'I'm doing this for you, if what Javik's people were hiding can help everyone back on Rannoch, only for a little bit, it would be worth it' Shepard said.

'O John, when do you start thinking about yourself for a minute, and not about someone else' Tali said, her voice full of concern.

'I don't have a choice, everytime I think I can lay back, something else happens' Shepard said with a sigh, and he opened his omnitool.

'Just so you know, were ever you go, I'll be on your side' Tali said, rubbing shepards left hand.

'I know' Shepard smiled, and he contacted Liara.

It took some seconds before the signal reached through the mass relay, and was received by liara.

A light began to flicker on his omnitool, indicating that Liara had received his call.

'Hello shepard, it's so good to see you again' Liara said.

'Feelings mutual' Shepard said.

'Anyway I wanted to ask you something' Shepard said.

'I'm all ears' Liara said.

'Do you know the icecream store where I bought you your favorite icecream?' Shepard asked.

'I do, it was lovely' Liara said, and she hang up.

'What the hell was that about?' Tali asked.

Shepard deactivated his omnitool before he turned to face Tali.

'It's code language, you now she is the shadowbroker, I have to use code language, or her identity can be revealed' Shepard said.

'Logical' Tali said.

'I have some more things to handle, stay here, will be back in no time' Shepard said, and he planted a kiss on her mask.

Shepard left Tali behind in the captains quarters, and made his way towards the lower deck where Javik had taken up his residence.

Because the alliance navy didn't really have time to clean the Normandy up after the war, Javik could simply move back in, like nothing had happened.

He was staring into a puddle of water, like he was searching for an object.

Just like he did when the reapers were still a thing.

'Commander' He simply said when Shepard entered his quarter.

'I have important information' Shepard said, closing the door behind him.

'I contacted liara, and we will meet her on illium, in her office Shepard said.

'Great news, when do we reach Illium?' Javik asked.

'We will reach it in about ten to twelve hours' Shepard said.

Javik nodded, and he resumed to staring into the puddle.

'Have you been able to gather more information from the shard?' Shepard asked.

'Bits and pieces, but nothing that could point us to the direction of the planet' Javik said.

'Let's hope that's not the case for long' Shepard said.

'I hope that the asar… doctor T'soni has what we're looking for' Javik said.

Eleven and a half hours later.

The Normandy reached the Tasale system, and went straight to illium.

Javik, tali and Shepard waited patiently before the Normandy docked.

When it did, a jolt went through the ship, the Normandy had docked.

'Succesfully docked, you can leave the Normandy' Edi announced.

Shepard pressed the button, and the door opened, revealing to them the beauty of Illium.

The city luckily didn't have much to repair after the reaper war, and became a temporary home for many asari.

They used illium, and for the most past Nos Astra to wait until Thessia was sufficiently reconstructed.

The giant influx of refugees did create a chaos, which the planets authorities desperately tried to control.

As Shepard, tali and Javik walked through a crowd of asari, trying to get inside Nos Astra's trading hub.

The docks where so tightly packed, that it took them fifteen minutes before they finally reached the trading hub.

Even though it was a little less crowded, it was still way busier than usual.

Merchants had trouble keeping up with the demand, there was a long waiting line behind every counter.

Against every wall, dozens of refugees had made it their temporary home.

The authorities where making more permanent housings on the planet's surface, but that would take some more time.

The group made their way through the crowd, and reached the door towards Liara's office.

Liara's former secretary was replaced by a young human female, who greeted them with a smile.

'Is doctor T'soni inside?' Javik asked to her.

'Certainly, she's expecting you' the woman said.

The door opened.

The group got inside and walked towards Liara, who was a report on a hologram.

'Hello shepard, you finally made it' Liara said with a smile.

'I came as fast as I could' Shepard said.

'Let's go to my apartment, we can speak more freely there' Liara said, and she beckoned Shepard and his team to follow her.

Liara's secretary at her with a surprise.

'You're leaving ma'am?' She asked.

'Yes, I'll be gone for the coming two days, reschedule all my appointments to Tuesday.' Liara said.

'As you will' The secretary said.

'Let's go to the transportation hub and fly to my appartment' Liara said.

They reached the transportation hub, and Liara quickly found her skycar.

She opened the doors and offered everyone a seat.

Liara, shepard, tali and Javik got inside, and Liara immediately took off.

'We can talk now?' Shepard asked.

'Yes, I've personally modified the skycar so that no one will be able to listen in on what we're saying inside the skycar' Liara said.

'I want to now the location of a planet' Shepard said.

'You sure you checked the milky way's map correctly?' Liara asked.

'Why else do you think I contacted you?' Shepard asked.

'I'm just kidding shepard, I will try my best to find out where this planet is' Liara said.

The skycar reached Liara's apartment, and they stepped outside.

Liara's apartment was two stories high.

The second floor had a small balcony which looked a small porch from which several yellowish flower-like plants grew.

'You've got a small palace right here' Shepard said.

'With the money I received after the war, I managed to expand my house, and make it a little bit more luxurious' Liara explained as she led the group into her house.

She waved her right hand across the door, and touched it slightly.

'Identity confirmed, welcome back Dr. T'soni, are these your guests?' Gliph said after the door opened.

'They are' Liara said.

'Very well then' Gliph said.

'The door can only open to someone with biotics, and my face and dna ofcourse' Liara said.

The group got inside.

'What if someone forces entry?' Javik asked.

'Normally there isn't a lot of information present inside my house, but if it is, it gets destroyed to prevent capture' Liara said.

'Impressive' Javik said.

Liara led them through the house, until they reached a door.

'This is where I keep the information' Liara said.

She opened the door, and got inside the room.

It was tiny, about three by five meters, it had only one light in the ceiling, and the only thing that was inside other than the light in the ceiling, was a pole right in the middle.

'This is where I store valuable information when I'm not aboard the shadow broker's ship' Liara said.

Javik, tali and shepard also got inside, making it rather tight.

Liara pressed her hand against the pole, and it lit up with a bright blue light.

A screen appeared right above it.

'ID-scan in progress' The system said.

'ID-confirmed, warning other beings detected in the room, are they with you Dr T'soni?' The system said.

The system scanned her another time.

'No signs of coercion detected, you are not under any drugs, you may access the system' The system said.

'Well, what planet do you search' Liara asked.

'Pherth 185, located in the titan nebula' Shepard said.

'Okay' Liara entered the information into the search bar, and let the system search for any information on the planet.

It searched for a moment before a message popped up:

'Nothing found, please enter a valid code'

'Dammit' Shepard said.

'Hold on' Liara said.

'The information I have here is incomplete, it's still possible that the planet exist, but we'll have to search on the shadow brokers ship, if it exists, it's there' Liara said.

'We can leave now if you want?' Liara asked.

'That would be the best I think' Shepard said.

Liara nodded, and she wiped the screen away, and the system shut itself down.

Javik, tali and Shepard followed her as Liara led them back outside and back to the skycar.

They got inside the skycar and Liara flew them back to the trading hub.

'I think It would be the best if we flew there with the Normandy' Liara said.

'You're as welcome as ever' Shepard said, and he smiled a little.

The four person group made their way back to the docking area.

It was a little less crowded, but still busy.

Some of the merchants had closed their shops, the room they left behind was taken in by more refugees, who used the place to set up camp.

'There's a lot of people' Tali said.

'It was a lot worse, but I hope that its over in the next few months, the refugee camp on the surface is almost done' Liara said.

As the group was halfway back, one random asari grabbed Shepard by the arm, stopping him.

'What the?' Shepard said.

'Relax, I'm Ereba from the Citadel' The asari said.

Shepard looked at the young asari child in her arms.

'I just wanted to say, thank you for convincing me to give Charr another chance' Ereba said.

'It was the least I could do' Shepard said.

Ereba smiled at him.

The group got back to the Normandy.

Joker, who was standing right in front of the door of the docking station, greeted them.

'That didn't take too long' He said.

'Did you find what you're looking for?' Joker asked.

'No, we'll need to go to Hagalaz and visit the shadow brokers ship' Shepard said.

'Ofcourse commander, the ship will take of in just a minute' Joker said and he got back to his pilot seat.

'Not a lot has changed here' Liara said as she inspected the normandy's insides.

'I just got her back' Shepard said.

'I'll be at the starboard observation deck until we reach our destination' Liara said, and she walked away

.

There was a slight jolt through the Normandy, as it disembarked.

'We are underway commander, arriving at Hagalaz in approximately eighteen to twenty-four hours' Joker said.

'Another day with no questions answered' Shepard said as he threw himself onto his bed.

'At least we still have one hope' Tali said.

She removed her mask, and all of her clothes, leaving only her underpants and her bra.

'That's true, but by right now I was hoping that we already had discovered what Javiks people were hiding' Shepard said.

'Let us enjoy the night, and worry about that later' Tali said, and she joined Shepard in bed.

She snuggled up to him, hugged his chest, and pushed her skin firmly against hers.

'We should do this way more often' Tali said.

'You're absolutely right' Shepard said.

They both closed their eyes and fell asleep only a minute later.

Shepard woke up before Tali did.

He gently pushed her arms away, and carefully left the bed.

He covered his private area with a towel, and went walked out of his quarters.

Taking the elevator to the crew dining area.

He grabbed a plate, some sausages with bread and sauce for himself, and some a drink specially made for Tali.

As he walked back to the captains quarters, he noticed that more than one of the Normandy's female crew members were staring at him.

'The quarian is so damn lucky' One of them said.

Shepard ignored all of them, and made his way back to his suite.

She was waking up.

'Roomservice' Shepard said happily.

'Damn shepard, you sure now how to keep your woman happy' Tali said.

Shepard handed her the drink, and got back to the bed.

'It's pretty good' Tali said as she sipped the drink.

'All the best for you' Shepard said, and he took a bite from a sausage.

Tali smiled to him.

'If even the shadowbroker doesn't have any information about pherth-185, I give up' Shepard said.

'Don't be so pessimistic, I'm sure liara has some information' Tali said.

One hour later.

Shepard and Tali had finished their breakfast, and they had made their way to the bridge.

'Approaching Hagalaz commander, ETA ten minutes' Joker said.

'Warn Javik and liara and tell them to gather in the shuttlebay' Shepard said to EDI.

'Will do Shepard.

Shepard nodded, and went to the shuttlebay along with Tali.

Liara was the last to reach the shuttlebay.

'Sorry, I couldn't find my rifle' She said as she joined the group.

'Let's get inside the shuttle everyone' Shepard said.

One by one the group entered the shuttle.

'The ship is close, it's a short five minute flight' Liara said.

There was a slight jolt.

'The ship just passed through the atmosphere of Hagalaz' Joker said over the com.

Liara herself took control of the shuttle, and flew it straight out of the Normandy's cargobay.

The shuttle rocked back and forth as it made its way through the very hostile atmosphere of Hagalaz.

'You sure you can locate the shadow brokers ship in this conditions?' Tali asked Liara.

'It's a bit worse than I expected it to be, but it shouldn't be a problem' Liara said.

She gently guided the shuttle through the thunderstorm cloud.

Shepard sat down on the bench of the shuttle and waited.

It took Liara the full five minutes before she had the shadow brokers ship in sight.

'There it is' Liara said and she pointed straight ahead on the monitor.

Shepard gave a sigh of relief.

Liara slowly but carefully piloted the shuttle towards the ship, aiming for as close to the entrance of the headquarters as she could.

It ultimately landed right in front of the entrance.

Five armed guards greeted them:

'Welcome, back shadow broker' The leader said, and he opened the door for Liara and the others.

As the door closed behind them, Liara led them to her main office, the same way they fought through three years ago when they rescued Feron from the former shadow broker.

'Place seems to be in better shape than we found it in the first time we got here' Shepard said.

'Yes, I used some of the shadow brokers fund to upgrade some of the systems on this ship, it now behaves even better' Liara said

They reached the main office.

'Liara, back so soon?' Feron said, and he turned his back to a console to face her.

'I see you took some friends with you' Feron said.

'They asked for my help' Liara said.

'What do they need to know?' Feron asked.

'They need to know the location of a planet' Liara said.

Feron walked to another console.

'What is the name of the planet?' Feron asked.

'Pherth-185' Javik said.

'Never heard of that' Feron said.

'That why we're here' Shepard said.

Feron entered the name, and with a single push of a button, the system began to search.

Ten seconds later, the results came in.

'Dammit' Feron said.

'It says there are no records of a planet during prothean times that was named Pherth-185' Liara said.

'You sure Pherth-185 is correct?' Shepard asked to Javik.

'I'm as sure as one can be' Javik said.

'Let's try it another time, maybe I typed something wrong' Feron said, he slowly re-entered the words, and let the system do another search.

But after ten seconds passed, the system gave the same results as the first time.

'The search is futile then' Javik turned around to walk away.

If even the shadow brokers data base didn't have anything on the planet, there was no chance they could ever find it.

'What if' Tali suddenly said.

'Huh?' Shepard asked her.

'What if it's not a planet, but an asteroid?' Tali loudly asked herself.

'Dammit you're right that's highly possible' Feron said.

He quickly changed the criteria of the search to asteroids, and run another search.

Since there were a lot more asteroids compared to planets, the search took twice as long.

'There you go' Feron said as the results came in.

'What does it say?' Shepard said.

'It says that Pherth-185 is indeed not a planet, but an asteroid, about forty-five kilometers across, its located in the Sigurds Cradle, on the asteroid belt of the same system you found the leviathans in' Feron said.

'Now we know what the next part is going to be' Tali said.


	6. Mass effect An empires secret Chapter 5

**Hello everyone,**

 **I hope that all of you are having a great day.**

 **It took some time because the internet was down.**

'I told you I was right' Javik said and he grinned.

'Let's get back to the Normandy' Shepard said.

Shepard javik and Tali made it to the door, before they were stopped by Liara.

'Wait for me' She said.

'You also want to come with us?' Shepard asked.

'Well of course and you need someone with my expertise on ruins' Liara said.

Shepard thought about it for a moment.

'It would have been weird to kick you out after you helping us' Shepard said.

'Thank you shepard' Liara said, and she followed them back to the Normandy.

Back in the Normandy.

'What a day it has been' Shepard said as he stretched his leg on his bed, with Tali laying right beside him.

'I don't know what I should think about it' Tali said and she stared to the ceiling.

'Why?' Shepard asked.

He could hear her whimper behind her mask:

'Because the last time you went searching for an ancient secret, you nearly drowned yourself' She said.

'You think I'm reckless?' Shepard asked.

'Hardly' Tali said, and they both laughed.

They still had over a day until they reached Psi Tophet in the Sighurd's Cradle.

Time they spend together.

Since the reapers where gone, they made up for the time lost, something both of them really didn't mind to do.

A day later.

'Shepard come to the bridge immediately, I've picked up some weird rader signals' Joker said over the com.

Shepard stood up from his desk, and walked to the elevator.

He took it, and headed straight to the Normandy's cockpit.

'Shepard I wanted to speak to you about…' Liara tried to say, but Shepard pushed her aside.

'No time, sorry' Shepard said.

As he reached the cockpit, the door opened for him right away.

'What is it Joker?' Shepard asked.

'Mr. Moreau and I have picked up silhouettes of multiple unidentified vessels on the Normandy's radar' Edi said.

Shepard sighed, it was still at least another hour until they reached the Psi Tophet system, so he wasn't too pleased with another delay.

'See if you can find any mention of the ships of counsel logs' Shepard said.

Edi looked at him:

'Don't you think I already did that? And no, I can't find any mention of them'

Shepard thought for a moment.

'Can you bypass them?' He asked.

'Sure, but if they're pirates, we can also…' Joker tried to say before Edi yelled:

'Brace for evasive maneuvers!'

In the little time that it took for Joker and Shepard to talk, the enemy ships fired at the Normandy.

Thanks to Edi's hyper fast reaction times, the enemy's shots missed.

'God, you should've warned me sooner, I think I might have broken a bone' Joker said in pain.

Edi didn't respond.

Shepard grabbed the com of the entire crew to warn them.

'This is commanding officer Shepard, all hands to battle stations, this is not a drill, I repeat this is NOT a drill!'

The next few moments where organized chaos.

This was something the crew, or even Shepard didn't expect to happen.

'Prep the main armament, lets show these bastard you don't fuck with the Normandy' Shepard said.

Joker flew the ship straight between the enemy ships, evading all of their shots, and landing behind them.

'Normandy's ready to fire' The gun crew said over the com.

Shepard waited for a second.

'Give them a taste of our weaponry!' Shepard said loudly, and he pressed the fire button.

The Normandy shook a bit, and it's two Thanix main armaments slammed a slug of tungsten-carbide to a fraction of light speed.

Thousands of a millisecond later, the slugs impacted the enemy ship, the two massive thirty kiloton yields ripped straight through the hull.

The enemy's ships armor and shields didn't stand a chance against this massive impact

'Bullseye' Joker said.

'How many of them are left?' Shepard asked to Edi.

'Three, one small vessel, one larger, and the third one is cruiser size' Edi said.

Joker quickly piloted the ship in order the evade the enemy's return fire, which thanks to his outstanding piloting skills, wasn't too hard to do.

'Get behind them, then we'll give them another ass kicking' Shepard said.

'This mission is getting better by the minute, I missed doing this' Joker said, and he laughed.

Within two seconds, the Normandy was behind the enemy's rear, and Shepard fired the main gun again.

Another ship was destroyed.

'Target the larger vessel, but not the cruiser size' Shepard said.

'Why not?' Edi asked.

'If we board the cruiser, we can maybe find evidence of who is behind this pirate attack, and perhaps maybe free some prisoners' Shepard said.

'As you wish commander' Edi said.

With a push of a button, the Normandy destroyed the last ship other than the cruiser.

'This girl still got it!' Joker exclaimed.

'Target the cruiser engine, that should both disable their shields, their engine, and make a hole large enough to fit a shuttle in' Shepard said.

'Yes commander' Edi said.

'Wrex, tali and Javik prepare in the shuttle bay, we're going to board them.' Shepard said over the com.

He quickly made his way to the shuttle bay, where Wrex was already waiting for him.

'This just keeps getting better and better' He said.

Tali also reached the shuttle bay.

'Shepard' She said, and hugged him.

'What is this, a Shepard Tali love nest? I can look away for a few moments if that's what you want' Wrex said, and he laughed.

'The shuttle pilot is ready commander' The shuttles pilot said, and the doors of the shuttle swinged open.

Javik arrived as well.

They got inside and the shuttle flew away.

'Any idea who these guys are?' Wrex asked.

'Not really, and this area isn't really known for pirates, so I'm curious to see who it is' Shepard said.

The shuttle's pilot the ship straight to the back of the enemy ship.

Meanwhile, shepard could see the massive damage the Normandy's main guns had done, the engine was totally destroyed, and another major hole right next to it made the ship look like a piece of French cheese.

'No return fire, they have to be dead, or barely alive, good' Javik said.

'I like the way you think' Wrex said.

'Commander, I'm closing in on the hull, stand ready, this is going to be a rough landing' The pilot said.

'Be ready everyone' Shepard said, and he stood up from the shuttle's bench, grabbed his rifle, and waited.

With one final swing to the left, the shuttle went straight to one of the holes in the engine compartment of the cruiser, and simply flew inside.

Just before the entrance, the shuttle's pilot lowered the speed so that the landing wouldn't be too hard.

'Brace for impact!' She yelled, all four braced themselves, and waited for the inevitable shock.

Like the pilot had said, it was a rough landing.

But thanks to the shuttles shields, it wasn't deadly.

'It's showtime!' Wrex yelled, he put on his oxygen mask, waited for all the others to do so as well, before swinging open the doors of the shuttle.

The vacuum of space immediately tried to pull them away, so it was a good thing that all of them had activated their magnetic boots.

They saw at least a dozen enemy's floating around, some of them where even pulled away into space, never to be heard from again.

'Follow me' Shepard said over the com.

The group walked through the engine bay, straight ahead to the exit.

No one fired upon them, which wasn't really surprising considering the Normandy's main armament had just practically destroyed them.

The exit door was reached in less than a minute, and Shepard pressed the door to open it.

'Shepard wait' Tali said.

She walked closer to him and pointed at the door.

'Don't you hear that?' She asked.

'I didn't what did you catch?' Shepard asked.

'The door, it used the Batarian language' Tali said.

'Wouldn't be too surprising, almost all slavers are Batarians' Shepard said.

'But why would they attack us?' Tali asked.

'Strange indeed' Shepard said, and they walked through the door.

Another three enemy soldiers floated around, but this time, they at least tried to fire back at Shepard.

He shot all three of them before they really had a chance to fire back accurately.

'Command center is likely dead ahead' Tali said.

'Good, more of these bastards to kill, or we can just throw them out the airlock' Javik said.

'I start to think you're actually a krogan in surprise' Wrex said.

They travelled the entire length of the cruiser, which was about one hundred to two hundred meters, before they reached another door.

Shepard tried to open this one as well, but it remained closed.

'Tali, can you hack this?' Shepard asked.

'Sure thing' Tali said, and she went to work.

She first scanned the locking algorithm, before choosing the correct decrypting program on her omni-tool.

'Stand back the door is going to open in two seconds' Tali said.

Wrex stepped forward and stood before Tali and the door.

And Wrex was right.

Just after the door opened.

Dozens of tiny hyper velocity tungsten fragments came their way.

Most of them impacting on Wrex, the rest all around them.

'Go get these assholes!' Shepard yelled.

They stormed towards the pirates, shooting at them in the meantime.

Halfway there, they passed through a containment field, which the pirates used to breath.

Wrex was the first one to reach the pirates.

He shot one of them with his shotgun, the slug slammed the pirate's body against the wall.

A big part of his lower belly was torn apart, killing the pirate instantly.

As all the pirates focused their fire on Wrex, Shepard, Javik and Tali could just move beside him, and gun the other pirates down.

All in all, the firefight lasted for less than half a minute.

It left all of the seven pirates dead, with not even on a wounded on Shepard's team.

'This shit is starting to feel just like old times' Wrex said.

'Just like I thought' Tali said, she kneeled beside one of the killed pirates, and removed his helmet.

'A Batarian, how surprising' Shepard said.

Shepard walked to the ships command console, and contacted Edi.

'Edi, I want you to download everything on this ship, and search for the reason why they attacked us' Shepard said.

'I will' Edi said.

Shepard connected Edi to the console through his omni-tool, and waited.

'Let's see' Edi said as she started the download.

'Done' she said a few seconds later.

'I will now analyze the data, and inform you once you are back' She said.

'Thank you Edi' Shepard said.

'Before we go, Wrex, can you carry one of the dead, the left one with the headshot, I think we need him for evidence' Shepard said.

Five minutes later.

'What did you find Edi?' Shepard asked.

'I don't know if I'm surprised, or shocked, I think you should see for yourself' Edi said, and she offered Shepard a tablet.

Right after shepard started it, he could see multiple Batarians in some sort of room.

They were speaking in their own tongue, but Edi had added subtitles so he could read what they were saying.

'You have full authority to hit any humans on your hunt, may you hunt well and kill as many humans as possible' One of the Batarians said.

'You operate under direct command of the Batarian hegemony, and all of your actions against humans will have our approval.

The vid ended.

'There is still some more evidence, but I'm not going to show it to you, this was the most important part' Edi said.

'I'm going to contact Admiral Hackett, this will not go unanswered' Shepard left the cockpit and headed straight to the communications room.

A simple quest had just turned into something dangerous.

This was concrete evidence that the Batarian Hegemony is directly targeting humans without discrimination.

Shepard knew that the Batarians didn't stand a chance against the alliance navy, but even so, both sides would take heavy casualties.

Just before Shepard reached the communications room, he bumped into Tali.

'Shepard, I dropped the dead Batarian inside the cargo hold, you can decide what you do with him' Tali said.

'Thank you Tali' Shepard tried to smile, be he couldn't.

'What's wrong?' Tali asked.

'This is not the first Batarian attack, you think the alliance will just sit back and take it?' Shepard said.

'I don't know, but I'll support you on every decision you take' Tali said, her left hand reached for his right, and stroked it.

'I will be forever on your side' She said.

He hugged her.

'This may take some time, meet me in my quarter when I'm done' Shepard said and he winked.

'Sure thing commander' Tali said, and she walked away.

Shepard opened the door to the communications room, and walked straight to the console.

'Edi, contact admiral Hackett' He said.

'Establishing communication link now' Edi said.

Shepard waited for a few moments as the signal was bounced between multiple relays to encrypt it.

'Shepard, something you wanted to talk about?' Hackett said as he answered the call.

Shepard sighed.

'Sir' he began.

'Aren't we already past official nonsense?' Hackett laughed for a moment.

Shepard swallowed once.

'The Normandy was attacked by Batarians who operate under direct orders of the hegemony, and we have proof' Shepard said.

Hacketts face turned visibly white, even in the hologram.

'I want the full report' Hackett said.

'Edi will send it to you' Shepard said.

'Thank you Shepard, I will contact you again when I have discussed it with the other admirals' Hackett said.

'I will await it patiently' Shepard said.

'Hackett out' Hackett said, ending the connection.

Immediately after that happened, Shepard got a bad feeling in his stomach.

Something he often had when terrible things where about to happen.

'You're finally here, I thought you had forgotten where I was?' Tali asked and she smirked.

'I will never leave you' Shepard said.

'Good, now come' She said.

With a quick movement from both her hands, she removed her helmet's glass piece.

'You're stressed out, allow me to help' Tali said.

Very slowly, she removed her suit.

As she did that, she moved her hips in a circular movement, pressing her hands against her boobs from the side.

'Wait, you're giving me a lap dance?' Shepard asked.

'So that's what humans call it' Tali said, as she removed the last piece of her suit.

Now she was only wearing her underpants and her bra.

Shepard couldn't control himself anymore.

He stepped up from sitting on the side of the bed, walked to Tali, grabbed her from the floor, before throwing her on the bed.

'Keelah Shepard' Tali squealed and laughed.

As quickly as he could, Shepard removed his pants, before pulling Tali closer to him.

At that exact moment Edi stopped him.

'Commander, Hackett asked you to answer his call with the upmost urgency'

Both Shepard and Tali froze.

'God fucking DAMMIT' Shepard yelled, he threw himself of the bed, and forced himself to put on his closed.

Tali looked at him with sadness in her eyes.

'I will stay here' Tali said.

He blew her a kiss and left his room, heading for the communication hub.

The light indicated that someone was making a call was already flickering.

'Admiral Hackett, what did the other admiral say about it' Shepard said.

Hackett looked at him for a few moments.

'Mikhailovich wanted to attack the Batarians immediately and wipe them out, Andrews agreed with him, only me and Klingemann agreed on sending a declaration of war first' Hackett said.

'Wait, you are already sure there's going to be a war?' Shepard asked.

'As you probably know, this is by far not the first time Batarians killed or tried to kill humans, this will never be tolerated' Hackett said.

'We will send the ultimatum in an hour, no doubt the Batarians will refuse it, and if they do refuse it, we simply cannot accept anything less than unconditional surrender for the crimes they have committed to us' Hackett said.

At times like this, Shepard wished he could just simply wake up from his nightmare.


	7. Mass effect An empires secret Chapter 6

**I hope the next chapter is going to be longer**

 **As Always, comments and suggestions are a highly appreciated**

He forced himself to walk back to his quarters.

He opened the door, but stood still in the door opening.

Tali, who was still lying on the bed looked at him and said:

'What happened' She said.

Shepard slowly made his way to the bed.

'Shepard?' Tali asked, her voice full of concern.

Shepard didn't say anything, instead he just let himself fall onto the bed.

'John, please tell me' Tali asked.

Shepard sighed, before finally speaking.

'There's going to be a war with the Batarians' .

'Oh my' Tali said in surprise.

'It's unavoidable' Shepard said.

'The Batarians had it coming for them' Tali said.

Shepard looked at her.

'Not every Batarian is bad, it's just that their government is so full of shit, and they can't do anything about it' He said.

'You will find a way' Tali said.

'But it seems so ridiculous, why would the Batarians attack us directly, they know that the alliance is just waiting for the opportunity to destroy them, why do this?' Shepard asked.

Tali thought for a moment.

'I really don't know, what if someone who wants to have the Batarians gone?' Shepard asked to himself out loud.

'The only people who want them gone are gone themselves' Tali said.

'That's it you're right, it's got to be Cerberus' Shepard said, and he stood up from the bed.

'How will you ever find out if Cerberus is really behind the attack it also seems illogical, why would Cerberus use human soldiers?' Tali asked.

Shepard frowned, and scratched his now four days old beard.

'They're gone, you destroyed them when you took out the illusive man's base' Tali said.

'What if they're not gone, like the illusive man said, Cerberus is an idea, and an idea is not so easily destroyed' Shepard said.

'I don't think it's likely but I have to know for sure, I just can't let an entire race's future be destroyed if there is even a possibility that they're innocent' Shepard said, and he headed for the door.

'Shepard?' Tali asked her voice had a hint of disappointment in it.

'I'll only be gone for a few minutes' He said, and closed the door behind him.

'Javik come to the cargo bay now' Shepard said as he took the elevator down.

'Yes commander' Javik responded.

If the dead Batarian had any proof that he was with Cerberus, Javik was sure to find it.

Shepard reached the cargo bay floor and stepped out from the elevator.

He already could hear Javik coming when he walked inside the cargo bay.

'Commander, what with the delay?' He asked when he entered the cargo bay.

'I want you to have another look at the dead Batarian' Shepard said.

Javik nodded and walked to the bag with the corpse in it.

He zipped the bag open, and placed his hands on the dead Batarians forehead.

Javik closed his eyes for a few seconds before he responded:

'His mind feels like it was controlled, it's not his own'

Shepard almost jumped in the air.

He was right.

The Batarians didn't do this, they were innocent.

'That's all I needed to know, thank you Javik' Shepard said, and he walked back to the elevator.

'Commander, when do we restart the search?' Javik asked right before the elevator closed.

'Soon, but first I'll have to make sure that a genocide is avoided.

'And?' Tali asked when Shepard returned to his cabin.

'I think I might have found a way.' Shepard said and he sat himself on the bed right next to her.

He removed his shirt and took a deep breath.

'I will need to take the Batarians corpse along with me tomorrow and Javik, he can prove that the Batarians are innocent' He said.

'There still is the video recording we recovered from the ship, that's more than enough prove to start a war, even if the Batarian was controlled by someone else.' Tali remarked.

'There's that, but we at least have to research every option there is' Shepard said.

Tali started to massage his back.

'You know, we still have a few hours until we reach the citadel' Tali said and she hugged him from behind.

Shepard looked at her.

'Tali you're more important to me than sex' He said.

'You're my wife, we will forever be two souls connected by chance'

'But seeing you shirtless just unleashes a desire inside of me' Tali said.

Shepard smirked and waited for the Normandy to travel to the citadel.

Half a day later.

'We have reached the citadel commander' Joker said over the radio.  
'Use docking bay DZ21, we are in a hurry' Shepard said.

'Understood commander' Edi said, and the ship began to descend towards the citadel tower.

'Tali and Javik prepare to leave the Normandy' Shepard said.

He himself first walked to the cargo hold to grab the corpse of the dead Batarian, and carried it all the way to the top, where the others already waited for him.

'It's a heavy bastard' Shepard said.

'Put him in a bag and have it delivered to the council chambers so we don't have to carry it' Tali said.

Two other crewmembers of the Normandy grabbed the dead Batarian from Shepard's back, and lifted it into a bag and placed it onto a platform with wheels.

'Let's go and prevent a genocide' Shepard said and he walked to the elevator which took him and his team straight to the council chamber.

Shepard had taken the docking bay closest to the council chamber, he would have been too late with the other docks.

His mind was racing back and forth.

Even though the Batarians where responsible for the dead of many humans, it wasn't worth it to just destroy their race.

Genocide was and is never justified.

His conversations with Bray while taking back Omega had been very pleasant, and had convinced that it the Batarians weren't just the mindless freaks they are usually portrayed as.

Shepard and his team reached the council chambers.

Hackett, Mikhailovich and Andrews where standing in front of the door.

'Shepard?' Hackett asked in surprise.

'I came here to prevent a genocide' Shepard said.

'I don't think you will be able to' Mikhailovich said.

'The fleets are being mobilized, we just came here to sends the declaration of war, and convince the other council races' Andrews said.

'You can't do this' Shepard said.

'Yes we can, we are protecting humanity' Andrews said.

The two crewmembers of the Normandy arrived with the bag.

'What's inside?' Hackett asked.

Mikhailovich took one look inside, before closing the bag again.

'One of the pirates you killed?' he said.

'Yes, but I beg you take another look at the video, whatever it is, there has to be something that will convince you not to attack the Batarian home world'

'Javik can prove it wasn't the hegemony' Shepard said.

'Even if they are not responsible for the attack on the Normandy, the hegemony is responsible for the many attacks on human colonists before and during the reaper war in the terminus systems, you know that Shepard' Andrews said.

Shepard sighed.

'Just take a few minutes and listen to what Javik has to say' Shepard said.

The generals just nodded their heads.

'It can show you….' Shepard said before Hackett interrupted him.

'I'm sorry Shepard' Hackett said.

'We're going to make the Batarians pay, even if they didn't orchestrate the attack on the Normandy' Mikhailovich said.

Shepard just turned his back on the admirals, and walked away, taking Javik, Tali and the two crewmembers pushing the bag with the dead Batarian inside with him.

The team had gotten back to the ship.

'I failed' Shepard said, and he poured himself another drink.

'You didn't' Tali said.

'How else would you describe it then?' Shepard said, and he downed the shot in a single go.

'Stop that, that's more than enough' Tali said, and she grabbed the bottle from his hands.

'Even if Cerberus is behind it, there is no way we can find them, every high ranking Cerberus officer is dead, no one knows how the organization worked exactly and if any of them survived the war' Shepard said.

'Well, there is one' Tali said.

'Who?' Shepard asked.

'The Cerberus cheerleader' Tali answered.


	8. Mass effect An empires secret Chapter 7

**Thank you all for your patience.**

 **The next chapter is situated in Omega.**

 **As always suggestions are welcome**

Shepard looked at her.

'You know where she is?' He asked.

Tali thought for a moment.

'I think she went to stay on the citadel, near huertha memorial hospital' She said.

'She apparently is undergoing continuous medical treatment' Tali said.

'We need to find her right now' Shepard and he immediately got up from his chair, put on a coat, and he wanted to walk to the front of the Normandy to disembark once again.

'Shepard wait, I'm coming with you' She exclaimed when she came running towards him.

'I'll only be gone for a few minutes' He said.

'You'll take me with you' She looked him straight in the eye.

Shepard laughed.

'Wait, no way Ms. vas Rannoch, you're jealous?' He said, laughing

'Have you seen the way she looks at you, the bosh'tet doesn't accept the fact that you're mine' Tali said and she grabbed Shepards hand.

Together they stepped out the Normandy, and Tali led him to huertha hospital.

When they arrived it was largely empty.

At least compared during the reaper war period.

The hospital now wasn't overrun with patients, instead the doctors could take their time with each patient.

Shepard saw that the damage of the reaper war had been totally repaired.

It had taken the combined knowledge of all the races to fix not only the damage around huertha hospital, but the entire citadel in over a year.

The keepers weren't there to help them, they had all died of after the reapers had been destroyed.

Now every task of the station had to be done by an organic, since the Geth where almost annihilated when Shepard activated the crucible.

They reached the hospital.

As Shepard walked inside with Tali right beside him, he immediately noticed that a different smell was hanging in the air.

The last time he walked inside here, it had the foul stench of death hanging all around.

Not that surprising considering that perhaps over four to six thousand people of all different races had died here.

But now it smelled fresh, like it was ready for a new start.

Like everyone was in the galaxy.

'Do you two need help' A hospital worker asked and he approached them.

'Yes we are looking for Ms. Lawson' Tali Lawson.

'Well Ms. Lawson is undergoing a treatment as of this moment, but you can visit her right now if you want, she is laying in room seven' The worker said.

'Thank you' Tali said.

'If you have any question, don't bother to call for my help' The worker said and he walked away.

Shepard and Tali walked to the specific wing, and searched for room seven.

It took them some time before they found it, but thanks to Tali, it wasn't too long.

'You seem to know your way here' Shepard said.

'Yeah I… had a small fever a few months ago and decided to go here to treat it' Tali said.

They waited for a few seconds as Shepard was watching through the glass door.

Miranda was indeed lying in bed, she had her back turned towards them.

Shepard knocked once, waited for one second and entered the room.

'Shepard?' Miranda said, she had turned towards them.

'Miranda how are you doing today?' Shepard asked and he smiled.

'Good actually, I'm currently undergoing a medical treatment as you can see' Miranda said and she raised her arm to reveal an iv stuck in her arm.

'You should have asked for my help' Shepard said.

'I know, but it's a problem I'll have to solve on my own, but thanks anyway' Miranda said before her gaze moved on towards Tali.

'Hey Tali, it's good to see you again' Miranda said.

'You to Ms. Lawson' Tali said.

'But cut to the chase Shepard' Miranda said.

'I need your help' He said.

'Well it depends on what exactly it is' Miranda answered.

Shepard walked to the edge of the room to look out the window.

Suddenly he very lightly heard:

'You Bosh'tet'

He turned around.

'What?'

'Nothing' Tali said angrily.

Her hand was resting on the side of the bed.

'What happened between you two?' He asked.

'Nothing' they both said in union.

'Yeah sure' Shepard said and he returned to his point.

'I know you know how Cerberus operated, I want your help in uncovering a Cerberus cell somewhere in the galaxy to prevent a war' Shepard said.

'Damn Shepard, I truly don't waste any time' Miranda said in a surprised expression.

'How soon can you come with us?' Shepard asked.

Miranda gazed over at the IV.

'About now' Miranda said.

She removed her blanket, and swinged her legs over the edge of the bed.

Shepard could now see that she was wearing normal every day clothing, like she was trying to blend in with the crowd.

Tali pulled Shepard closer to her, and proceeded to stand right between him and Miranda.

She grabbed the iv in her arm, and gently pulled it out, before placing it on the table next to her.

'So that was quick' Shepard said.

'It was about to finish when you came in, it only takes about half an hour, but I need to stay in the hospital when it is administrated, in case side effects happen' Miranda said.

She grabbed a bag from under her bed and looked over at Shepard.

'I'm ready to go' She said.

'Let's go then' Shepard said.

'You go first Shepard' Tali said and she opened the door for him.

Miranda and Tali exchanged gazes, before the three of them left the hospital room.

'Ms. Lawson, you're not supposed to be out of bed already!' A hospital worker came running towards them.

'I'm doing fine really' Miranda said.

'You sure about that?' The man asked.

'Yes I am and right now, I want to leave' Miranda said.

'Be back for your next appointment in three weeks, same time same day' The worker said, and he walked away.

'It seems like you're in good hands' Shepard said.

Ten minutes later in the Normandy.

'Well commander, it seems like you're bringing the old squad back together quite nicely' Joker said over the com as he saw Shepard, Tali and Miranda entering the ship.

'It feels good to be back' Miranda said.

'Is my old room still available?' She asked.

'Yes, you can use it again if you want to' Shepard said.

'But about Cerberus, do you know about any plans for what would happen after the main base gets wiped out?' Shepard asked.

'Not a lot, but I do have a lead' Miranda said.

'Where do we have to go?' Shepard asked.

'Omega' Miranda said, and she smiled.

'What the hell would Cerberus do in Omega?' Tali asked.

'I had a lot of meetings with other Cerberus agents there, and I also know the locations of certain' Miranda waited for a second.

'Information drop points'

'Why didn't you me about it sooner?' Shepard asked.

'It's complicated, I was in the illusive man's inner circle and I probably knew the most about him, but even I was fumbling in the dark about his location' Miranda said.

'You said you were on his base some time ago' Shepard said.

'I was blindfolded the whole trip' Miranda said.

'The illusive man took the security of the station as one of Cerberus's most important goals' Miranda said.

Shepard nodded.

'Has life been treating you fair?' He asked.

'I have my ups and downs, I was trying to fix one of my only mistakes before you arrived' Miranda said.

'What one?' Shepard asked.

'Womans issues' She said and grinned, even Tali grinned from behind her mask.

Five minutes later.

'What is the matter with you?' Shepard asked Tali after he closed the door to his quarters.

'You really don't see it, do you?' Tali said.

'Be honest with me Tali, say what you want to say' Shepard said and he waited for Tali to respond.

Tali started to do her famous hand wriggling.

'Shepard I' Tali said before she sat right beside him.

'You can tell me anything' Shepard said, holding her hand.

'I see the way she looks at you, and I just know she wants you' Tali said, her voice very soft.

'Tali you know that..' Shepard said before Tali interrupted him.

'And that's not the only thing' Tali said, before looking Shepard in the eye.

She paused for a few seconds, trying to find the words she needed to say.

Shepard waited patiently for Tali to speak.

'Shepard I didn't go to the hospital because I was sick' She said.

'For what reason then?' Shepard asked.

'I'm carrying your baby' Tali said


	9. Mass effect An empires secret Chapter 8

**It's a little dramatic I know but it is neccesary for a major upcoming storypoint.**

 **Comments are highly appreciated.**

Shepard looked at her.

'I know' He said, and he smiled.

'Why didn't you ask me?' Tali asked.

'I was waiting for the perfect moment and that moment obviously never came' Shepard said, grabbing Tali's left hand.

'We will be one happy little family on Rannoch after this is over' Shepard said.

Tali leaned her head against his chest.

'But how is it even possible?' Shepard asked and turned his face to look at Tali directly.

'I have an extremely rare genetic defect, it causes my problems in my dna code, allowing mixing with dna from other races' Tali said.

'We are damn lucky' Shepard said.

Shepard hugged hear from behind, feeling her chest rising and falling.

'Commander, you might want to prepare to dock, because we are about to reach Omega' Joker said over the com.

Shepard stuffed the last piece of bread in his mouth, and walked to the docking door.

The journey had taken about four hours, four long hours.

Every minute it took, he could hear the cries of the dying in his head.

'Tali and Miranda, gather at the docking door asap' Shepard said over his com.

Shepard had put on his armor just in case.

Omega was a place not known for being friendly.

Hell, the last time Shepard was there, hundredths of Cerberus troopers where shooting at him.

The evidence of this battle could still be seen.

Dozens of destroyed warship still dotted the area around omega itself.

It would perhaps take dozens of years before they would be taken care of.

The Normandy took a turn to the right, and slowed down.

A hanger bay appeared to their right and Joker piloted the Normandy to perfectly align on the first try.

Both Miranda and Tali arrived.

'You know where we are headed?' Shepard asked to Miranda.

'The meeting point was in one of the slums, but it was an area riddled with violence and drug abusers' Miranda said.

'Isn't that the case for all of Omega?' Tali asked.

'Not all of Omega is bad, the area's firmly in control by Aria are fairly well civilized' Miranda asked.

The door hissed, pressurizing the air.

'But we had to meet in the most god forsaken area's in all of Omega, just to be sure no one was following us' Miranda said.

Shepard opened the door, and the three of them stepped inside Omega.

Omega hadn't changed dramatically since Shepard was last there.

Sure all the bodies were gone, but a major part of the damage was still there.

Almost all of the lamps in the ceiling ten meter above their heads were still not working, and as the group walked further inside Omega, they noticed that a lot of area's were closed down because of breaches in the stations outer layer.

'It's still a fucking hell hole' Shepard said.

Tali and Shepard followed Miranda as she carefully led them through a maze of hallways, shops and housing.

As he walked next to another shop, Shepard thought:

'Omega is the definition of organized junk'

'You sure we have to go like this, I think the air here will damage my filters' Tali complained to Miranda.

Miranda nodded and let them further inside omega.

Suddenly the walk way they were following went downwards, and let them away from all the houses and shops.

They were exchanged for bars, and Shepard saw that Miranda was right about the drug abuse in the area.

More than once, when they passed a house, they saw people of all races hunched down, grabbing their stomach.

Some of them seemed dead, until you watched them closer, that's when you could see that they were in some sort of trance.

'This is horrible' Tali said.

'Omega has always been like this and this is the way it will always be' Miranda said.

She pushed aside a piece of cloth that was hanging in front of them, and led them even further.

As the journey continued on, Tali grabbed Shepards hand.

'I don't trust the bosh'tet'' She said silently.

'We have to trust her, there is no other way' Shepard said with a slight distrust in his voice.

'What would I gain in abducting you?' Miranda said, she overheard the conversation.

'The galaxy's greatest hero?' Tali said.

'God, I don't think there is anything I can ever say that will win your trust' Miranda said and she stopped right in front of a door.

'No, you don't' Tali sneered back.

Miranda shook her head, and turned around.

'We reached the café were we usually went' She said.

'Let's get inside and get it done' Shepard said looking at Miranda.

Miranda opened the door and walked inside, with Tali and Shepard following behind them.

Unlike Shepard had expected, the place was dead quiet.

Not even vermin were present in the café.

Chairs and other pieces of furniture were thrown all around the café's bar.

It surely didn't seem a place where agents of one of humanity's richest sects would gather.

'I think she's leading us into a trap' Tali said.

'For once in your life you have to trust me' Miranda said as she walked around the bar.

Using her biotics, she pushed the majority of rubble aside.

It revealed a carpet of red fibers mixed with some blue and purple.

Miranda also shoved it aside, bringing forth the wooden floor.

Next, she activated a button somewhere right between the wooden beams using her biotics, and it sprung up.

'What the hell did you just do?' Tali asked.

'It would be bad if just a random person opened this, so it's only able to be opened by someone from Cerberus, the lock has a DNA-scanner on it' Miranda said.

'And how did you managed to open it, since you left Cerberus years ago?' Tali asked.

'Well, some things just take time changing' Miranda said, and she took a very tiny black box.

Miranda stood up, and she gave the box to Shepard.

'If any information about surviving groups exist, it's on here' She said.

Shepard nodded, and he put the box in his pocket.

Suddenly, Miranda grabbed both of their arms.

'What the?' Tali tried to exclaim.

Miranda razed her finger, urging them to be quiet.

'Someone is outside' She gestured.

Shepard grabbed his gun, and aimed it right towards the door.

They all waited for something to happen.

And it did.

A huge shockwave knocked the door and the three behind it down.

Multiple bandits stormed inside.

'Money or your life, we can also settle with both of them at the same time' A Salarian said.

Just in time, Shepard managed to grab Tali, and together with her, jumped behind the counter.

Miranda also avoided the bullets by jumping out of the way into the toilets next to the counter.

'Shepard!' Tali yelled.

He ignored her, and instead looked around him.

He found a small hole right in front of him, allowing him to see the four bandits.

Shepard aimed his gun right through one the hole in the counter, and took one of the bandits out.

The bandits riddled their position with bullets, Shepard pushed Tali to the floor, and layed down upon her to shield her body.

There was no way Shepard could do both protect Tali, and kill the bandits.

'We should have gone in full battle gear' Shepard thought.

Right when one of the bandits was walking towards their position, a blue wave knocked them back, smashing them against the wall.

Four shots in quick succession sounded across the bar, and it was silent again.

'They are dead, you can come out of hiding now' Miranda said.

Shepard got up to his feet and looked at her.

'I'm happy we brought you with us' Shepard said.

'Well, I'm always happy to help' Miranda said, and she put her gun back in her pocket.

Shepard took a deep breath and said:

'Finally, we're ready'

'Let's get going then' Miranda said.

They walked to the door before Shepard noticed there was something wrong.

'Tali!' He yelled.

'Shepard…' He heard her say faintly from behind the counter.

Shepard almost jumped the entire distance between the door and the counter, before he threw himself over it.

Tali was laying hunched up against the counters inside wooden wall.

She was grabbing her stomach.

Shepards face turned white as blood was pouring between her hands.

'Shepard, we have to get' Tali said faintly.

Shepard ripped a piece of cloth from one of the dead bandits uniforms, and wrapped it around her chest, trying to stem the bleeding.

Miranda appeared right beside Shepard.

'We have to get her back now!' She said.

Miranda helped Shepard lifting Tali from the ground.

Shepard grabbed Tali tightly, and ran outside.

Miranda didn't even need to show him the way back.

As Shepard ran back, Tali didn't respond to anything.

She was weaker by the minute.

'Prepare surgery with doctor Chakwas immediately!' Miranda exclaimed over the com with the Normandy.

The further they went back, the more desperate Shepard became.

He started to feel Tali's blood sipping through onto his hands.

The cloth was already soaked in it.

The short journey of less than three minutes felt like it lasted for hours.

Time was running out, time they didn't have.

Shepard could feel his heart pounding.

Tali was the love of his life, losing her would mean the end of everything.

Finally, after a seemingly hour-long run, the three reached the dock were the Normandy was.

The door sprang open, and the three stormed inside.

Doctor Chakwas was already standing ready.

She had prepared herself,

She was wearing a white operation cloth, it covered her from thirty centimeters below the waste all the way towards her chin.

'Get her to the sickbay!' She said.

Shepard ran straight past her, into the elevator.

Right before the doors closed, Dr. Chakwas also got inside.

He didn't know how fast he could press the bottom.

After according to Shepard very painful one seconds delay, the elevator went down.

The doors opened again, they had reached the sick bay.

Dr. Chakwas pushed the door open, and Shepard got inside.

He laid Tali on an operating table and looked at Dr. Chakwas.

'This is going to be tricky, you might want to look away' She said, and she grabbed her instruments.

Carefully, Chakwas removed the cloth that Shepard used to help stop the bleeding.

Chakwas face didn't change at all.

She carefully removed a part of Tali's suit, exposing her greyish-white skin.

'Can she make it?' Shepard asked.

'I don't know, but it's bad, very bad' Chakwas said.

Shepard wished the world disappeared under him.

To swallow him, and allowing him to get away from this nightmare.

'Give me one of the bottles on the right!' Chakwas said.

Shepard handed her the bottle and watched as Chakwas poured it over the wound.

Most of the blood was washed away, allowing Chakwas to see the wound.

'Is she and her.. going to be alright?' Shepard asked.

'Yes I know you two are having a baby, and yes, if I can save Tali, the baby will be fine, her womb wasn't in the path of the bullet' She said

'The shot has carved a path right through her, repairing the damage will take some time, you must leave the room now' Chakwas said.

'But I..' Shepard tried to bring in.

'NOW Shepard, I need to concentrate and I work better alone.' Chakwas said, looking at him for a second before immediately returning to work.

In a split second Shepard decided to do what Chakwas said, and he walked outside.

Outside some of the crew was waiting for him.

'What happened?' Ashley asked.

'Bandits, they attacked us, and shot Tali in the process, she was hit badly, Chakwas is trying to save her life' Shepard said.

'Dear god' Another crewmember said.

'I will pray for her' Ashley said.

'You're a religious person?' Shepard asked.

'Sometimes, It's a leftover from the war' Ashley said.

'Pray all you can, Tali's going to need it' Shepard said, and he walked to one of the chairs on the dining table, which was right against the elevator shaft, and between the sick bay and Miranda's office.

Over an hour later.

Shepard was still staring at the sick bay.

Suddenly the sick bay's door went open, and Dr. Chakwas came out.

'Did she make it?' Shepard asked.

'It was the hardest operation I've ever done' Chakwas said.

'But did she make it?' Shepard asked again.

'Yes Shepard, she made it by the skin of her teeth, I barely managed to save her, if you hadn't covered her torso with the cloth, she would not have' Chakwas said.

Shepard hugged her.

'I'm forever thankful' He said.

Dr. Chakwas smiled.

'Go and visit her' She said.

Shepard walked straight to the door and went inside.

The sick bay seemed like a battle field.

There was blood everywhere on the floor, and Chakwas instruments were still laying on a table close to the one Tali was laying on.

He saw that Chakwas had closed the wound, and had covered it with a thick layer of bandage.

Shepard didn't even want to think about how it looked like beneath the bandage.

All it mattered was that Tali had made it.

Shepard couldn't imagine a world without her.

She was the sun in his life.

A candle in against Shepards inner darkness.

As he watched her chest slowly rising and falling, he felt like he was blessed with a mountain of relief.


	10. Mass effect An empires secret Chapter 9

**A little longer than I had expected :)**

 **I hope next chapter will come sooner.**

 **As always comments are highly appreciated.**

'She will probably wake up in an hour or two' Chakwas said when she entered the sickbay.

Shepard nodded.

'It's my fault she is in this position' Shepard said, bowing his head.

'Shepard, both me and you know that's not true, there's no way you could've known about the bandits' Chakwas.

'Easy for you to say' Shepard said.

'Well look Shepard, you still have the mission, so it would be wise if you finished that' Chakwas said, looking straight at Shepard.

'I know' Shepard said, and he walked out the door.

But not before looking one more time at Tali.

Chakwas had saved her from death.

If she had died, her death would have been thanks to him.

'I should have known' Shepard said to himself.

Miranda approached him.

She was not wearing her usual outfit, she had abandoned it slightly after the battle for earth.

'Shepard, how is Tali doing?' Miranda asked immediately.

'Better than I feared, worse than I've hoped' He said.

'I'm glad she's alive, losing her would be extremely sad' Miranda said.

'Unbearable' Shepard quickly said.

After a few seconds of slightly awkward silence, Miranda said:

'I delivered the box to EDI, she can decode it'

'Thank you Miranda' Shepard said, he put his hand on her shoulder in an appreciating manner, and walked past her to the cockpit.

Some of the crew were looking at him.

Obviously everyone knew about it.

Shepard reached the cockpit and got in.

'Have you decoded the box EDI?' Shepard asked to Edi, who was sitting in the right drivers position, right beside Joker.

'Is Tali okay?' Both joker and EDI asked.

'Not as okay as I want her to be, but she made it' Shepard said.

'Great, the Normandy just doesn't fly the same without her' Joker said.

'I think the correct expression would be: thank god' Edi said.

'Exactly, you're right EDI' Shepard said.

'And Shepard?' Edi asked.

'Yes?' He said.

'I managed to decode the information on the box, and yes, Cerberus is still alive, very weak, but still alive' EDI said.

'Just like I thought' Shepard said.

'Any idea on their location?' Shepard asked and he stroked his now pretty long beard.

'Yes, we know exactly where they are hiding' Edi said.

'Set a course for wherever it is' Shepard said, and he left the cockpit.

'Will do commander, ETA four hours' Joker said.

Shepard walked straight back to the sickbay.

Tali was still laying on the bed.

Her position hadn't changed.

'What if she gets sick?' Shepard asked.

'It would be fatal, but I have some of the most powerful antibiotics on board, so you shouldn't worry about that' Chakwas said.

As he held her hand tightly, Shepard could swear he could feel Tali trying to grasp his hand as well.

It continued for a few seconds, before it ended again.

'She is fading in and out of consciousness, she lost to much blood' Chakwas.

'How long will the Normandy's supply last?' Shepard asked.

'The artificial quarian blood supply will probably last a day or three, but it's not as good as real blood, it's just an imitation' Chakwas said.

'My angel' Shepard said, and he touched her face.

Tali's brown eyes were closed.

'Come back to me' Shepard said, and a tear rolled down his cheek.

'She will commander, just give her body some time to repair itself' Chakwas said, her voice was somewhat comforting to him.

'Commander, we've reached the Cerberus base, but you might want to check on this' Joker said.

'Finally' Shepard said.

'It's a small moon above a gas giant, perfect place to hide' Joker said.

He gave Tali one last kiss on her forehead, and made his way to the cockpit.

Joker, Edi and Ashley were waiting for him.

'The bastards' Ashley said.

They were watching a vid that was displayed on a small screen Joker was holding.

Shepard looked at it, and what he saw shocked him.

'Since declaring war on the hegemony one day ago, the system alliance fleet has started to convergence in systems close to Khar'shan' A reporter said.

'The alliance high command has said that the continues attacks by the hegemony will now be punished harshly, the alliance also demands an unconditional surrender of all hegemony forces' The reporter continued.

Joker closed the vid.

'It seems like the mission just got a that bit more tense' Joker said.

'Even though I don't like the Batarians, they don't deserve what the alliance is about to unleash upon them' Ashley said.

Shepard thought for a second.

'Then we will have to make this quick, ready the shuttle, signal Wrex and Javik and to be ready, it will be a hard fight' Shepard said.

'You're coming with me as well' Shepard said as he looked to Ashley.

'How do you think you'll penetrate the base?' Ashley asked.

'We knock on their front door and ask them nicely to come and fight us' Shepard said and he smirked.

'I've pinpointed the location of the Cerberus base on your map, it seems like it's somewhat defended' Edi said.

'Good' Shepard said.

Two minutes later in the shuttle bay.

'Shepard' Wrex said as he finished putting on the last piece of his armor.

Now he looked like a walking tank.

Normal Krogan were scary, but Wrex in his armor was something else.

'The sooner we resolve this shit, the sooner we can resume the search' Shepard said.

Javik nodded.

Suddenly Miranda approached them.

'I have to come with you' She said.

'You sure, it's a rough terrain out there for cheerleaders' Ashley said.

Miranda looked at her with a fury in her eyes.

'I could throw you out the airlock if I wanted to' She said.

The situation grew a bit volatile.

Until Javik said:

'Don't steal my quotes, make up your own' He said.

Both Ashley and Miranda couldn't help to laugh.

'In the shuttle all of you, and remember, focus your fury on the Cerberus troops' Shepard said.

The group got inside the shuttle, and it took off.

It exited the Normandy's cargo hold, taking a turn to the left towards the moon.

'Everyone put on your oxygen mask, the moon doesn't have an atmosphere.' Shepard said.

Shepard looked outside the window.

The moon was small, no more than half the size of earths.

From this distance the Cerberus base couldn't be seen, but the sensors on the shuttle indicated that there was indeed one.

The gas giant the moon orbited was almost the size of the solar systems Jupiter, just a tat bit smaller.

It also had a different color, instead of orange and red, this gas giant was almost completely blue, with some dark spots in between.

'Cerberus truly knows how to hide' Shepard said to himself.

The moon was approaching rapidly, and the base came within visual range soon after.

'Commander I'll land the shuttle as close to the base as I can' The shuttle pilot said.

'Great, everyone be ready' Shepard said, and the shuttle approached the base in an angular path to avoid detection.

But that didn't help.

Suddenly the shuttle pilot screamed:

'INCOMING ENEMY FIRE'

The shuttle took a sharp turn to the right as the pilot tried to evade the shots.

'The shock of the sudden movement knocked every one of their feet.

Then there was another massive shock.

'WE HAVE BEEN HIT, I REPEAT WE HAVE BEEN HIT!' The shuttle pilot yelled.

The shuttle took a sharp dive.

'I lost control!' The pilot yelled in panic.

Shepard didn't have time to properly react before the shuttle crash landed onto the moon.

The intense shock of the impact knocked him against the door, almost knocking him unconscious.

It took him some seconds in order to realize what had happened.

'Everyone alright?' Wrex asked.

'I'm fine' Ashley and Javik said.

'Put on your oxygen mask!' Shepard said.

Luckily for them the shuttle did land on its belly.

'You can wait here with the shuttle' Shepard said to the pilot.

But no reaction came.

Shepard made his way to the cockpit, and immediately found out why.

'Oh god' He said as he watched the woman sitting in her chair.

A piece of metal had buried itself from the front of her neck all the way through, coming out at the back.

Blood was spurting out from both the holes in the young lady's neck.

She looked once at Shepard, her eyes desperately asking for help.

Help Shepard couldn't give.

She reached out her right hand, trying to grab Shepard's arm, but failed as she suffocated to death on her own blood.

'Dammit' Shepard said.

'She's dead' He said.

'The Normandy will need to pick us up' Ashley said.

Shepard nodded.

'Who is ready to make these Cerberus bastards pay for what they have done?' Shepard asked.

'Is that even a question?' Ashley asked.

'Wait in front of the door' Shepard said before he carefully closed the shuttle pilots eyes.

'One more unnecessary death' He said softly.

He walked back to the door and opened it.

The four stepped out the shuttle.

The Cerberus base was to their left, about one hundred meters away.

'Let's make this quick!' Shepard said, he grabbed his rifle, and started to run in the direction of the base.

The moon's gravity was not as weak as Shepard had expected, but it was still much easier to run in this environment compared to on earth.

During his time training and becoming an N7, trainings in low-gravity areas were the easiest.

He had crossed the distance between the crashed shuttle and the first parts of the base in just a little bit less than twenty seconds.

Multiple Cerberus soldiers were already shooting at him.

He simply dodged their bullets and returned accurate fire.

The team followed Shepard as he carved his path through the Cerberus soldiers.

Dozens of them were gunned down by the group.

The Cerberus's soldiers didn't stand a chance against the fighting skill of Shepard, Javik, Ashley and Wrex.

After only one minute of fighting, they had killed every Cerberus soldier they could see.

Shepard found a door to the inside.

After unsuccessfully trying to kick the door open with his combat boots, he shot a couple times at the lock.

Which did succeeded.

Immediately when the door opened the area quickly depressurized, throwing some of the rooms content in their face.

After the room was depressurized, Shepard and the other three got inside.

They looked around the room and found that it was connected to a hall to the right of them.

'Look at this shit' Ashley said, and she grabbed something from the floor.

It was an Normandy scale model.

'Seems like some in Cerberus still like you' Ashley said.

'They can, but I'm not with them, it was only mutual beneficial' Shepard said to Ashley.

'I know commander, just joking with you' She said.

'Have some respect for our shuttle pilot' Shepard said, and he continued down the hallway.

The approximately twelve meter long hallway led them into another room.

It was circular in shape and had a staircase leading down right in the middle.

'How on earth did the alliance not notice this?' Ashley said.

'It could be because of the massive invasion the galaxy was suffering, but I could be wrong' Shepard sarcastically said.

Shepard was the first to climb down the stair.

The room beneath him was lid up by the flashlight in his helmet.

It revealed rows upon rows of beds, more than enough to fit the entire squad they killed outside.

Javik stepped up right beside Shepard.

'How did they feed themselves?' He asked.

'And how did they drink enough?' Ashley asked.

'We will see' Shepard said.

The team walked down the entire room to the other side.

It revealed another door.

A quick salvo of Shepards rifle and it swung open.

'Wow' Ashley said after she got a look inside.

'That's how they got their food' Shepard said as he watched the gigantic algae farms.

'It would have been enough to feed them' Javik said.

The team walked through the hallway, inspecting the algae farms.

They were extremely advanced.

Even Javik was surprised by the technology.

'This is approaching the technology of my people' He said.

'Shepard, I think we should take it with us' Wrex said.

'Yeah sure, I still have some space in my backpack for a gigantic algae farm' Shepard said.

Wrex grunted slightly irritated.

'I mean the blueprints of the technology has to be inside this base' Wrex said.

'Wrex is right, we…' Ashley said before she was interrupted by a loud siren.

'Intruders detected, execute directive seven-three-nine-five!' The siren announced.

It was repeated after a couple seconds.

'What the hell do they mean?' Ashley said.

'Do you want to find out?' Wrex said, and he run in the direction of where the sound came from.

Shepard and the other two followed him.

The sound became louder and louder as the group reached the other end of the algae farm room.

It was closed off by another door.

Wrex took his shotgun, and aimed it square in the middle of the door.

He pulled the trigger, and the door was blown out its hinges instantly.

And the room before them was depressurized almost instantly.

Four Cerberus's soldiers and three what seemed like scientist floated around, desperately trying to keep breathing.

A big red light flashed in the top of ceiling, the source of the siren.

'To loud' Ashley said, and she aimed her rifle at the siren, firing two shots.

The two shots disabled the siren almost instantaneously.

Shepard walked to the middle of the room and reached a console.

'Edi are you there?' Shepard said over the com.

'Yes I am Shepard, but what happened, the landing seemed a little rough' Edi said.

'The bastards shot us down' Shepard said.

'Are all of you okay?' Edi asked.

'Apart from the shuttle pilot, no one is hurt' He said.

'Can you download everything you find on this console?' Shepard asked.

'I will Shepard, just establish a link between me and the console' Edi said.

Shepard did and waited.

'EDI, I have a question' Shepard asked.

'Yes Shepard?' Edi said.

'What does directive seven-three-nine-five mean?, we heard it just before we entered this room' Shepard said.

'Shepard you need to get out of here right fucking now' EDI said in slight panic

'Why?' Shepard asked.

'The directive indicates that the base will destroy itself with you inside using a nuclear warhead' Edi said.

'RUN!' Shepard said to the rest of the team.

Shepard ran as fast as he could, with his team right behind him.

'Run for you fucking lives' He screamed.

And they did.

They made their way back the same way they came inside.

But it was going to be tight.

The warhead could explode at any minute.

Incoming death has a weird way of motivating yourself.

They opened the door to the sleeping chambers, not even caring to close the door behind them.

Meanwhile another siren had started.

'Edi, how long do we have left?' Shepard asked while he ran.

'Judging by the sound of the siren, less than two minutes' Edi said.

Shepard jumped to the ladder connected to the upper floor and started to climb.

'The Normandy has to come and pick us up, the shuttle is to far' Shepard said.

'Understood commander, Joker and I will hover the Normandy just above the ground so you can just hop in' Edi said.

'Always the same with you guys, we always have to run' Wrex said and he grunted once as he pulled himself up to the upper floor, helped by Shepard.

'No time for arguments' Shepard said, and he once again took the lead.

The path through the upper floor was easy to floor and short.

It took them less than twenty seconds to walk the way back.

The door was in the same open position as five minutes ago.

'Everyone outside!' Shepard said as he pushed Ashley outside.

'Ashley, Javik and..' Shepard counted everyone as they ran outside.

'Wrex hurry up!' Shepard yelled over the com.

'Fucking hell Shepard we Krogans are not marathon runners' Wrex said back.

After another four seconds Wrex also appeared outside.

'Joker come pick us up, and fast please, we don't have a lot of time' Shepard said to joker over the Normandy's com.

'Yes commander, we are coming' Joker said.

Shepard looked behind him and saw that the Normandy was indeed coming.

It was flying at a height of less than ten meters, with its cargo bay door open.

The cargo bay door almost touched the ground, it was less than twenty centimeters above it.

Within seconds the Normandy was right beside them.

Ashley, Javik and Wrex jumped inside.

But just before Shepard was about to do that, his mind returned towards the shuttle pilot.

It was safer to just leave her body here, jump inside the Normandy and fly away.

As Shepard grabbed the cargo bay door with his right hand, he sighed.

He couldn't do it.

He would hate himself for the rest of his life if he left the body of the woman behind.

After the war ended, he made a promise to Tali that he will never leave anyone behind anymore.

And he was a man of his word.

'I have to go get her' Shepard said.

He turned away from the ship, and he ran towards the downed shuttle.

'SHEPARD!' Ashley yelled.

'Come back you idiot, there's no time left, just leave her' Ashley yelled.

But Shepard didn't respond.

'Dammit' Ashley said to herself.

She dropped her rifle, and jumped from the cargo bay door.

Ashley ignored Javik and Wrex as they tried to keep her from running away from the cargo bay door, and followed Shepard towards the downed shuttle.

Shepard made it to the shuttle

He opened it, and went to the pilots seat.

The woman was obviously still there.

As he looked at her he saw he felt happy that he went back to save her.

He unbuckled her seat belt, and grabbed her with both his arms.

Suddenly someone else made it into the shuttle.

It was Ashley.

'You should have stayed back' He said to her, and Shepard lifted the pilots body from the chair.

'I promised to never leave your side again in combat, remember skipper?' Ashley said, and she helped Shepard lift the body towards the Shuttle's exit.

'Shepard you have less than ten seconds!' Edi said in panic over the com.

Shepard and Ashley lifted the body outside.

Joker had turned the Normandy's rear towards them.

'JUMP IN!' Edi and Joker yelled over the com.

Ashley jumped inside, and pulled the body towards her.

Once she had done that, she gave Shepard a hand to allow him to get inside as well.

Just before the cargo bay door closed behind him, Shepard saw that the Cerberus base suddenly dropped a dozen meters into the ground.

'Everyone brace!' Joker said.

Shepard, Ashley, Wrex, Javik and everybody else in the cargo bay were thrown of their feet's as the Normandy jumped towards light speed.

'Close call' Ashley said.

'Can you crack the data we recovered from the Cerberus base?' Shepard asked to Edi when he had made his way to the cockpit.

'No need to be insulting' Edi said, she laughed lightly to make him know she was joking.

'Inform me when you're done' Shepard said, and he left for the medical bay.

'It will take about ten minutes' Edi said.

Shepard nodded and he closed the door of the cockpit behind him.

He knocked once on the door to let Chakwas know he was here, before he got inside.

'Shepard' Chakwas said as she looked at him.

'How is she doing?' Shepard said, and he walked straight towards Tali, still laying on the bed.

'I have bed news' Chakwas said.

Shepard froze in his tracks.

'What?' Shepard said he turned his face around.

Chakwas swallowed once before she started to speak.

'It's like human with rhesus-factor, the baby's blood is attacking hers, its killing her'

'It only started a day ago, just after I had performed the operation, perhaps because of the trauma she suffered' Chakwas said.

'Can't you get the baby out here?' Shepard asked.

Chakwas shook her head.

'I neither have the equipment nor the skills to perform a quarian cesarean birth' Chakwas said.

'How long does she have left?' Shepard asked, he could feel tears starting to form in the corner of both his eyes.

'Twenty-four hours until Tali will suffer an heart attack' Chakwas said


	11. Mass effect An empires secret Chapter 10

**As always, comments are very appreciated**

For minutes on end he watched her laying on the hospital bed in deep sleep.

He had to save her.

Even it meant abandoning the mission.

He couldn't care less about anyone else.

After another minute of staring at Tali in deep sleep, he stood up from his chair and walked outside.

'I need a breath of fresh air' He said.

Chakwas nodded and resumed monitoring Tali.

Just after he walked out the door, Edi called him.

'Commander, I have decoded the data you captured on the base, and I have to say, very important heads in the alliance will roll' Edi said.

Shepard sighed once and walked to the cockpit.

'Commander' Javik said and he stopped Shepard.

'I hope your mate pushes through' Javik said, he layed his hand on Shepards shoulder as a sign of sympathy before he walked away.

Shepard reached the cockpit.

He opened it and got inside.

'Shepard, just like I said, this is absolutely unbelievable' Edi said.

'What did you find?' Shepard asked.

'Have a look of your own, but don't be surprised if it shocks you' Edi said.

Edi gave Shepard a tablet, and waited for him to have a look at it.

He started the clip on the tablet and watched.

It displayed some sort of house.

It took Shepard some time before he realized it was actually the house of admiral Mikhailovich.

The video continued for a few more seconds before it showed something that shocked Shepard.

Three men walked towards Mikhailovich, and these men were obviously Cerberus-personnel.

The badge on their right shoulder betrayed what they were.

The next moment Mikhailovich shook the hand of each of the three.

'Shepard, the video doesn't have audio, but I also did find some highly shocking audio recordings' Edi said.

'Great, contact Admiral Hackett' Shepard said.

'Yes commander, he'll be available in just a minute' Edi said.

Shepard nodded and immediately made his way to the com-room.

For the first time in days, he felt slightly better.

If he could convince Admiral Hackett to see the video and listen to the auto recordings, war with the Batarians would be avoided.

He reached the com-room.

Hackett was already waiting for him.

'Shepard, this better be worth it, the attack is about to begin' Hackett said, his voice very annoyed.

'Admiral, we have discovered a Cerberus base and we uncovered information that proves that the Batarian Hegemony, and with that the Batarian race, are innocent' Shepard said.

'Shepard, I promise you I will have a look at it, but I don't think it can change anything about what happens today' Hackett said.

'The report is send' Shepard said.

'I'll have a look at it' Hackett said, and he disconnected.

Crossing his arms, and leaning against the wall, Shepard waited.

The minutes slowly went by.

He checked his watch almost every ten seconds.

If this report didn't convince the other admirals of Mikhailovich treachery, nothing would.

Shepard sighed as he convinced himself that there was nothing he could do anymore.

After another minute of waiting, Hackett called back.

Shepard immediately answered.

'Shepard, I didn't think it would be possible' Hackett began.

'What happened?' Shepard asked.

'I showed the other admirals the report you send me, and like you said, the Hegemony didn't attack you' Hackett said.

'So what happens now?' Shepard asked.

'Let's just say one of the admirals will be removed from his post' Hackett answered.

'That's… great' Shepard said totally surprised.

Even though he wanted this to happen, he doubted it would.

'Mikhailovich will be arrested and charged with high treason' Hackett said.

'What do you think his prison sentence will be?' Shepard answered.

'Because he's an admiral, the death penalty will not be possible, but a very lengthy prison sentence is highly likely' Hackett said.

'But it's all in early works, I've only gave the order to arrest him mere moments ago'

'I've got much work to do, and Shepard' Hackett said.

'You just saved thousands of parents the pain of losing their sons or daughters' Hackett said and he smiled.

'Thank you admiral but I've got an emergency so I have to go' Shepard said.

'If you need help, you know where to find me' Hackett said.

'I know, thank you admiral' Shepard said and he smiled.

'Hackett out' The admiral said and he ended the connection.

A gigantic weight had just been lifted from Shepard's shoulders.

But as soon as this weight had left his shoulders, another one took his place

.

Shepard ran back to the medical bay and went inside.

'Chakwas, does the huertha have a quarian expert doctor?' Shepard asked.

Dr. Chakwas nodded.

'Prepare Tali for transport to the hospital' Shepard said.

'Edi, set a course for the citadel immediately' Shepard said over the com.

'Yes commander, ETA four hours' Edi said back.

'Shepard' Chakwas said.

'Yes?'

'I don't have a clue on what's wrong with her' Chakwas said and she looked at him.

'We will find out soon enough' Shepard said.

Shepard grabbed one chair and sat himself right beside tali.

He grabbed her left hand and caressed it.

Chakwas had repaired her suit, the part were here wound was, was now closed.

But unlike Chakwas had predicted, Tali's condition had only gotten worse after Chakwas treated the wound.

Something else was wrong with her.

A dark chill started to creep up Shepards spine.

Her condition had gotten so bad that Chakwas was forced to keep her in sleep.

Keeping her awake would be torture.

Four hours later at the citadel.

'Open the door now!' Shepard demanded, before as he pressed the button.

'It's almost closing time sir' The hospital's receptionist said from behind the already closed door

'Open the fucking door or I will bust my way inside' Shepard said.

'Christ' The receptionist said, and he opened the door.

He was almost knocked to the ground as Shepard, Ashley and Dr. Chakwas pushed the stretcher with Tali on it inside the hospital.

'Shepard, I'm so sorry' The receptionist said as he recognized Shepard.

'We need doctor Wagner now!' Chakwas demanded to the receptionist.

'He's over there' The receptionist said, and he pointed towards a young human man in another room.

'GET HIM NOW' Chakwas said.

'Doctor Wagner please come to the reception, I repeat Doctor Wagner please come to the reception' The receptionist said over the com.

The young man immediately ran towards them.

'I'm doctor Wagner, what can I do…' He said before he noticed Tali.

'Prepare surgery immediately, room seventeen' The doctor yelled over his com, before he ran towards Tali still on the stretcher.

'How long has she been like this?' He asked.

'Four days, she was shot but I managed to close the wound and treat it' Dr. Chakwas said.

Dr. Wagner stopped dead in his tracks.

'Did you PEP her?' Wagner asked.

'No, I just focused on the wound and…' Chakwas said before her face turned white.

'Does she have it?' Chakwas asked.

'If like you said she was shot, we need to get the baby out right now!' Wagner said, and he opened the door in front of them.

Wagner led them through the hallway, before choosing a room on his right.

He pushed the stretcher with Tali on it inside, before placing it right next to a hospital bed.

Two Asari assistants arrived.

'Shepard, what I need you to understand is' Wagner stopped for a moment.

Shepard continued to look at Tali.

'If she has what I think she has, the chance of her surviving the cesarean cut are fifty percent' Wagner said.

'What if we don't get the baby out?' Shepard asked.

Wagner shook his head.

'Both the mother and the baby will not survive another day' Wagner said.

The shock almost made Shepard lose his consciousness.

But what choice did he have?

Shepard turned to face the doctor.

'Do what you can to save her' He said.

Shepard left the operating room remove before they began.

He just couldn't take it anymore.

The sight of the love of his life on the edge of death was almost unbearable.

But even in what was probably the worst moment of his life, there was a beacon of light.

The prospect of becoming a father and possibly losing Tali made a mess of his emotions.

He took a seat right in front of the operating room and waited for the doctor to finish his work.

Time went by as the seconds turned into minutes.

Long minutes.

Shepard couldn't see what was going on inside the operation room, it was blinded and completely sealed to the outside world.

Even though Tali's immune system had improved.

It still wasn't even remotely up to the task of dealing with an cesarean cut.

Shepard looked at his watch.

Thirty minutes had gone by already, and there was no sign of how far they were.

He got up from his chair and started to walk around.

It was then that he realized that Ashley was gone.

'She is getting someone you probably need at this moment' Chakwas said when she noticed me looking around for her.

I nodded and I continued to walk around the hallway.

As it was way past opening time, it was almost dead quiet.

Almost no sounds could be heard, save from the few sparse ones from inside the operation room.

They were faint and nothing could be made out of them.

'You think she will survive?' Shepard asked to Dr. Chakwas.

'If anyone can do it, he can' Chakwas said.

'But he is a bit young' Shepard said.

'He indeed is, but I've seen him work, when it comes to working with quarians, he even blows Mordin out of the water.

Suddenly, the hallway opened, and two people stepped inside.

Shepard wasn't paying attention, so he turned his back to them and resumed to stare towards the operating room.

'John!' One of them said.

He recognized that voice out of thousands.

Shepard stopped walking immediately and turned around to face the person.

It was his mother.

'Mom!' He exclaimed, before running towards her and giving her a hug.

'You came' He said.

'I was visiting the citadel for some shopping, when Ashley came to me and told me to come with her' She said.

'But John, you should have warned me sooner about the fact that I'm going to be a grandma' She said, smiling at him.

'There was never the time to tell you' Shepard said.

'You and Tali are going to have such a happy little long life, with me as grandma babysitting all the time' Shepards mom said her voice was full of happiness.

Ashley, Shepard and Chakwas looked at her, their faces turned white.

'Wait… what's going on?' she said.

'She is very, very sick' Chakwas.

Shepards mom collapsed in her chair, where Ashley supported her.

Twenty minutes later.

The door of the operating room opened.

One of Dr. Wagner's Asari assistants walked out.

She closed the door behind her, before removing the mask covering her mouth.

'Shepard, the operation was a success' She said.

Both Shepard and his mom jumped from their chairs and hugged each other.

'You have a healthy daughter, but the mother' The Asari said before moving closer to them and sitting right in between Shepard and his mom.

'Dr. Wagner confirmed his suspicion, Tali has the scourge' She said.

Even Shepard himself knew what that meant.

No one had ever recovered from it.

'The disease progressed to fast inside of her because her body sacrificed itself in order to prevent the baby from getting the disease' The Asari said.


End file.
